Around five years ago I started ASV treatment for my complex central sleep apnea. At the time I was also taking prescription sleep meds, which made the adjustment to ASV treatment pretty easy. Unfortunately, I ended up stopping the treatment (big mistake but let's not dwell on that). The good news is that I have stopped taking the sleep meds after they lost their effectiveness and can generally get to sleep pretty easily now. However, it is clear that my apnea is still present and I am trying to restart ASV treatment. Without the sleep meds though, I am finding it very difficult to sleep with the ASV as it wakes me up after the first hour or so as it starts doing its work, and I end up stopping treatment for that night. Are there any tips for building up treatment time so that I can make it through the night? Thanks for the help.

OK, let's have a conversation. I have the ResMed AirCurve 10 ASV due to very high CA pre-existing/predominant. Since you call it ASV it is probably a ResMed, even so, include telling us which exact machine it is will be helpful. Therapy settings available to adjust are dependant on brand and model.

And what are the settings you are using? Don't be surprised if these settings are not correct if the doc/DME set these. The RT at the DME that issued my ASV had to guess at settings.

Here's what I ran on my ASV: EPAP 8-13 and PS 3-15, IPAP was a floating number that consists of whichever EPAP and PS were active at that moment. So the IPAP could be between 11-28 on mine, even though 25 is overall Max.

Another 2 questions. Do you have OSCAR, the free report tool that is available? And do you have an SD card to capture sleep data? If no, take care of these so we can see your data as an attachment from your post. We need to see the data to help guide us on what settings you need.

SD Card can be any brand of 2-32GB capacity, and in standard SD or SDHC. This applies if you have a newer machine; ResMed 10 series and probably Respironics DreamStations.

_________________
Duct tape carrying K9; the tape helps quiet stupid.
Dave K9DWB 73s

https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php/OSCAR_Help
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php/OSCAR_Chart_Organization

Thanks for the reply and the willingness to help.

Yes I own a Resmed AirCurve 10 ASV
The settings are:
Min-Max EPAP 4/7
Min-Max PS 1/8

Many will say that those pressures are too low to be effective, but as a light sleeper, I ramped them down over several months back in 2015 until I maintained good results without being woken up throughout the night. I was originally tested with an AHI of 40+ and at those settings I was eventually able to achieve a consistent AHI of 0.0.

I do have Oscar installed, but before we get into a discussion on data, I want to clarify that my question is not whether my machine is working. It's about how to discipline oneself to use the machine throughout the night when I have only been able to tolerate it in the past with sleep meds. It may just come down to "just do it" by exhausting myself to the point that I sleep through the night, but I am curious if there are tips that people new to CPAP have received that have helped them make the transition to a full night of treatment.

Use the machine while awake and under no pressure at all to fall asleep.
Use it while watching TV or reading.
Make a point to take nice slow even breaths especially when first turning the machine on. The ResMed ASV calculates the auto back up rate during the first 5 minutes you start using the machine and it can get confused with irregular and most likely frustrated breathing which in turn can cause it to do things you find annoying.

And you have to do this every time you restart the machine. It doesn't remember anything once you turn it off.
PS minimum of 4 might be more comfortable...it's the most common starting point for people on ASV. It will reflect a more natural breathing pattern.

_________________
I may have to rise but I refuse to shine.

I'd agree with the info Pugsy gave. I can't describe it any other way than she did. And as Pugsy mentioned, settings should be revisited to be appropriate and we can still set it to be comfortable.

I have an ASV myself. And comfortable to use and have effective therapy are not exclusive of the other. Give the practice time on the mask while on therapy pressures a try. You have to get comfortable with it somehow.

_________________
Duct tape carrying K9; the tape helps quiet stupid.
Dave K9DWB 73s

https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php/OSCAR_Help
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php/OSCAR_Chart_Organization