EMB ERJ 145 ER/LR
Flight Crew Multiengine; Flight Crew Air Transport Pilot (ATP); Flight Crew Instrument
Distraction; Situational Awareness; Troubleshooting; Workload
Aircraft Equipment Problem Less Severe
Air Traffic Control Provided Assistance; Flight Crew Requested ATC Assistance / Clarification; Flight Crew Took Evasive Action
Aircraft; Human Factors
I was the pilot flying. We were at our cruising altitude of 31;000 feet for 30 minutes (on the arrival into ZZZ) and then all of a sudden; I started to feel pressure in my ears and sinus. Then I observed the pressure altitude rising steadily. At that point I informed the Captain who was the pilot monitoring and asked him to please call Center and tell them we need to descend now. We put our masks on and established communication. Apparently; ATC did not fully understand what the Captain asked for; because they cleared us down to FL300. I started a descent and as we approached 30;000 feet; I saw no change in the rising cabin altitude and now we got a cabin altitude warning; so I blew right through 30;000 feet and asked the Captain to urgently tell ATC that we need lower now. At that point I put the seat belt sign on and made a PA to the passengers asking that they be seated immediately with their seat belts on; because we are descending. When they finally cleared us down to 10;000 ft we were about to pass through 28;000 feet and upon receiving the clearance to 10;000 feet I increased our rate of descent to as much at 5;000 FPM. We arrived at 10;000 feet at and continued our flight to ZZZ.We should have been more forceful with ATC with regards to our needing an immediate descent.Maybe scenario based training with regards to how to handle gradual loss of pressurization; such as using the manual override to adjust the outflow valve; to see if that fixes the problem. And if that doesn't work; then perform an emergency descent.
EMB-145 First Officer reported a loss of pressurization during cruise and having to descend to alleviate the problem.