CPAP data

[hopingitworks]

I haven't been on the forum for the last couple of years. After the death of my wife from cancer two years ago, I lost enthusiasm for just about anything I used to do. I am just now coming to grips with the reality of her loss and am attempting to move forward.

I really haven't paid any attention to my CPAP therapy. In many cases I didn't even bother to upload data to Sleepyhead. I have started doing that in recent weeks. My AHI's seem to be reasonable. I'm not sure how to post a screenshot but will be glad to do so if someone can give me advice on how to do so. What I have noticed is that my snore index appears to be higher than I remember it. I had a sister visiting (in the adjacent bedroom) and she stated she could hear me snoring through the wall. I do know that I can actually force a snore while awake with the machine on. I would think that I would not be able to do so if my pressure (7.8 constant) were sufficient to stop snoring. Perhaps that is not the case.

I never spent a night in a sleep lab for testing. I live in a remote community and had a test administered by a private company that just monitors the basics. They stated that I only needed a constant pressure to alleviate my apneas. And once I got over many of the issues that face all newly diagnosed/treated patients, I seemed to be doing alright with the therapy. Not long after that my wife was diagnosed with cancer. And during that period I lost interest in monitoring the therapy.

So, at any rate, the snoring seems to have returned and I would like to find out if that is something that can be alleviated with a change in pressure or switching over to auto set where the machine can sense that I may need more pressure. Any help would be appreciated.

I should also mention that I inadvertently deleted my information on the memory card about a month ago. The information that I had uploaded is still on the computer as I have not put that chip back into the computer to upload new information. I am hoping that I will be able to download whatever information that is on the computer from Sleepyhead back to that chip. Any advice on how to achieve that would be appreciated.

I'm sure any responses will prompt me to add more information. I will do that as time permits as I am very busy at work. And work has been my salvation since the death of my wife.

Thanks for your help.

[Julie]

Hi, so sorry for your loss... it can really mess up your life but it's good to see you're trying to come back. You can go to Imgur.com to DL your reports and then leave a link on this thread... and for the snoring, if you sleep on your back, do whatever you can to not do that overnight.

[OkyDoky]

For help posting screenshots this site gives pictures and directions. Also check out his other links. It is managed by one of our members, krevlin, and has a lot of CPAP info. https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgurn

[hopingitworks]

Hi, so sorry for your loss... it can really mess up your life but it's good to see you're trying to come back. You can go to Imgur.com to DL your reports and then leave a link on this thread... and for the snoring, if you sleep on your back, do whatever you can to not do that overnight.

Thanks for your condolences. I will have to look into Imgur.com as I am not familiar with the website. Once I figure out how to post a screenshot I will do as you ask. I probably won't be able to get to that until the weekend though.

When I sleep in any other position than my back my nasal pillows get dislodged resulting in large leaks (which I try to avoid). I still have large leaks periodically through the night but I believe they may have been the result of mouth breathing as I do wake up periodically with a dry mouth. I'm OK with taping my mouth for now.

Thanks for your input

[hopingitworks]

Thanks Julie and OkyDoky for the link to Imgur and how to post pictures to the forum. It took a while but I figured it out. Below is the picture of my sleep data for one night. The snore graph commonly appears the same as the graph below. Is this amount of snoring normal? And one more question if that is alright. I went through the apnea board forum to get a link to how to use Sleepyhead. There is a lot of information there but I couldn't find out how to eliminate some of the less than useful graphs. Anyone know how to temporarily delete some of the graphs to make it easier to get only the graphs i would like to post?

[OkyDoky]

From what I can see other than your leaks at the end of your sleep it looks pretty good.

We need the Left sidebar usually so here's some more help.

On the left side turn off the calendar by clicking on the triangle by the date.
Also the pie chart doesn't give us very much info so you can turn it off by going to File - Preferences -Appearance - Uncheck Show event break down pie chart
That allows us to see the details on the left.

The graphs that are usually helpful are:
!. Event Flags
2. Flow Rate
3.Pressure (not mask pressure)
4. Leak
5. Flow Limit

Put your graph in that order by grabbing, by the labels, with your mouse and dragging it where you want it.
Now grab the line between the graphs and resize them until you get them in one screenshot.

Take a screen shot after you organize your graphs. You can push F11 ( or click file - view - fullscreen toggle) on your keyboard before you take your screenshot and it make it full screen with no ID info.

Also Imgur has a way to post where we can click on an image and it will enlarge. Reread the link I gave in my other post for that trick.

If you need more help just ask.

[hopingitworks]

Thanks OkyDoky!"

I have been perusing the Sleepyhead tutorial for on the Apnea board forum. I am fine with changing the appearance and size of the graphs. In those instructions it says I can bring up "Preferences" and add/subtract graphs. The example they give under preferences lists the following options-Import, Cpap, graphs, oximetry, etc. But when I click on preferences, the "Graph" heading is not available. Because that option doesn't seem available I can't add/subtract graphs from the screen. You asked that I show the flow rate/pressure graphs. I can't figure out how to add those particular graphs. Could someone help me out with trying to do temporarily change the graphs that appear when I bring up Sleepyhead?

One of the graphs you wanted me to add for screenshots was the Pressure graph. It does show up on my Sleepyhead graphs but it doesn't actually show the pressure. But I know the pressure is a constant 7.8.

I still would like to know if that pressure should be stopping my snoring. Or should I try a minor increase in the pressure (Pugsy suggested in her pointers that a minor change of .5cm of pressure may be OK for some people to do on their own)?

Any help would be appreciated.

[Julie]

Most of us change our pressure when we feel the need, but especially when it's relatively low (vs <15) there's little danger of doing damage if you change it by 1-2 cm at a time (vs .5) for a couple of nights to see how things go, so I would suggest trying that.

[Pugsy]

Prior versions of SleepyHead had a graphs tab in Preferences where we could turn the graphs on or off with just a check mark.
Seems like the latest version 0.9.8-1 doesn't have that graphs tab in Preferences.
Instead you can turn the graphs on or off by clicking on the "Event Flags" menu which is located in the right lower corner of the daily detailed page. Green means the graph is visible and red means it is turned off or not visible. To change from on or off just double click on each graph after clicking on the little arrow button by "event flags" to expand the menu and offer all the graph choices. This does the same thing as using the graphs tab in Preferences (if this version had graphs in Preferences).

[hopingitworks]

Thanks Pugsy. Nice to see that you are still on the forum!!!!

Anyone know if I should try to increase my pressure to decrease my snoring?

[hopingitworks]

I just noticed a previous post that stated that I can increase my pressure. Thanks for that input! I will increase it from 7.8 to 8.8 tonight and see if that decreases the amount of snoring. I will evaluate the changes and if that doesn't help I will further increase the pressure to 9.8.

One more question. When I did as Pugsy suggested with how to add/delete graphs, I noticed that "Flow rate" is not available as a graph on my computer (which is new). Flow rate does show up as a graph on my old computer. Does anyone have any idea why it shows up as an option on my old computer and not the new one?

[OkyDoky]

On SleepyHead you can turn on and off graphs so go to a Daily page and down at the bottom right hand corner click on the box and all the graphs will show. You can click on each individual and they will show Red (off) or Green (on) on the slider. If the slider is Red just click on it to change. Hope this helps.

[hopingitworks]

Pugsy explained that to me in a previous post. I can click on the triangle on the new computer and it will show me 10 graphs that can be displayed. When I click on that triangle on the old computer it will show me those same 10 graphs but I can also scroll down to other graphs that are available. One of the graphs available on the old computer (but not the new computer) is the "Flow Rate". I have been asked to get a screen capture that includes that graph. Anyone have any idea why Flow Rate is not a graph available to me?

[OkyDoky]

You can also look under File- Preferences- Waveforms and make sure they are checked there.

[hopingitworks]

Thanks for your input OkyDoky!

I checked on the waveforms and they were all checked. But mysteriously, when I turned on the computer this morning and opened Sleepyhead, all of the graphs on my other computer were on my new one .