Strange disconnects

[Rainmom17]

Strange thing happening lately. My machine if often giving a crazy number of disconnects during the night. I remember turning the machine off and then back on last night (to fix leaks) three times. When I looked at my data, it said I had 9 disconnects!! I think something's wrong with the machin. Unless I'm reaching over multiple times to turn it off and on and I don't remember. Which I suppose is possible. Same thing happened a few nights ago when I thought I slept through the night but it said I had 7 disconnects. Ideas anyone of what's happening?

[Pugsy]

Go down to the sessions on the left side of detailed report under the statistics and look at the times for the off and back on again.
How close are the times for off and back on?
Can you get me a screen shot of those session times?
I have heard of this happening...actually seen it but I don't know what is causing it.

[Hawthorne]

I had a disconnect problem for a while. I would wake up, no being able to breathe, I thought it was a machine problem, but it was a mask problem! I use the P10 nasal pillows. I adjusted the straps on the headgear. The directions for doing that come with the mask. Problem solved!!
I see you use a full face mask but thought I'd share my experience.

[Rainmom17]

Pugsy, here's my screenshot. Let me know what you think!

[Pugsy]

It is logged as starting and stopping at pretty much the same time.
I have seen this happen before but I don't know what is causing it. Multiple sessions being recorded when there really isn't multiple sessions like this happening. I saw one report where it was something like 30 sessions or even more.
We did all the usual trouble shooting to see what was causing it but we never could figure out what the problem was. It wasn't electrical, it wasn't connection, it wasn't mask, it wasn't the person, it wasn't the SD card...it was the machine. We did extensive troubleshooting to try to figure it out.
The one that I personally had my hands on eventually started dropping data off the SD card. I guess it got to the point it couldn't create enough P0 folders or something. It was really frustrating but the machine eventually went back for warranty replacement.

Now yours doesn't seem that bad but it's not normal and to my mind it indicates some sort of software issue going on. The data is still probably correct in terms of therapy data but it just bugs me when this stuff doesn't work like it is supposed to.

Is this the only time it has happened so far? If it is I would maybe just sit back and keep an eye on things but if it starts happening often then I would be seriously raising a stink about warranty replacement. To me it is not acceptable to have bugs like this in the software.

I have seen this personally with one machine (not mine but one that I was a party to the person getting) and I have seen this reported multiple session thing at least a half a dozen times just myself. To me its likely a software issue. I have zero proof except I know what I did to try to figure out the cause and I couldn't ever isolate a logical non software culprit.

[Rainmom17]

This is the 4th time it's happened over about 3 weeks. The first time I assumed that it actually was me. And a couple of the disconnects are me, because I do turn my machine off to fix my leaking mask. But I think I'd know if I'd turned it off that many times! Thanks for the advice. I'll keep my eye on it and if it continues or gets worse, I'll contact someone.

[Bertha deBlues]

Similar thing happened to me early on with my Dreamstation. It showed that I was hooked up but not breathing for long stretches. I felt okay, like I had slept. Respiratory Therapist didn't have a clue (didn't even know how to access the information off the card). This happened twice over a 3-4 month span, and has not repeated. I chalked it up to aliens. Hope this is just a glitch and that your Dreamstation starts behaving.

[JimW159]

In the not too recent past I had a similar set of experiences with my AS10 AutoSet. Following discussions with Accurate Biomed in Ocala, FL, we came to the conclusion the problem lay in the auto start/stop sensor (with the decision that repair costs would not be feasible). For some reason it sensed a shift in pressure or an apnea as the end of a session - following this, it would sense an attempt to inhale as a signal to start. My solution was to kill the auto start/stop function. There have been no repeats of the behavior since. Now that I am using a new AS10, I may try it again.

[Soothest Sleep]

I've noticed this happening sometimes with my machine too. I've logged a number of them: only once per night; between 7 and 8 am; less than a second between stop and re-start; no rhyme or reason to which nights are affected (that I can tell, anyway). I also had one night where there was a gap of a couple hours with no data showing in SH, and I'm sure I was asleep with the machine and mask on at that time. (Unlike the night I returned to bed from a bathroom run and fell asleep with the hose in my hand before I'd had a chance to hook it back to the mask, lol!) My data doesn't seem to be affected much (if any) by the micro-stoppages, and I don't even notice it happening (sometimes I am not fully asleep when it occurs).

I'll be seeing the resp tech next week or so, and intend to discuss the issue with her. I'll report back if she has any insight or knowledge to share.

Jean

[D.H.]

Check that the pulg is not loose and that you're lights are not flickering. That was my problem back in 1999. They had to rewire my entire street!

[Soothest Sleep]

FWIW, follow-up after visit to resp tech and conversation with tech support at Phillips:

Resp tech has never heard of this kind of micro disconnect before. I had her check my charts on the Respironics professional software for some of the times when SH says a new session started (with no input from me), and nothing showed up. Her first idea was that maybe those were times when my data was being transmitted to her office over the modem, but we agreed that probably wasn't it because those disconnects don't show up every day, and the data does get sent every day.

The tech support person at Phillips is of the opinion that the recording of such disconnects is likely a glitch of Sleepyhead. He said "that guy in Australia did an impressive job, but it's not perfect." (Which we know.)

Given the professional software is not also recognizing rogue disconnects, I'm not going to worry about it. Whatever SH is reporting there, it's not waking me up, and that's a good thing.

Jean

[Rainmom17]

Mine isn't a Sleepyhead problem, as it shows up on the app that goes with my machine (Dream Mapper). It's continuing to happen about every 3 or 4 nights. I don't think it's really a problem or interfering with other data, though. Just an oddity.

[Soothest Sleep]

Mine isn't a Sleepyhead problem, as it shows up on the app that goes with my machine (Dream Mapper).

I see. I don't use Dream Mapper myself. But that's interesting that two different programs are exhibiting a similar oddity.

Jean

[Pugsy]

The machine that I personally saw it happening with was also showing the same disconnects in the official Respironics software...Encore Pro.
So in 2 softwares...SleepyHead and Encore Pro. Running it through Encore was the first thing I did to see if it was maybe a bug in SH but it wasn't.

[Mark55]

While this is totally different than what you folks are talking about, I have an intermittent issue with MyAir. It has done the same thing with 2 machines now,....it reports that I have taken my 'mask off' 7 or 8 times a night, when I have only done it once. SH never shows anything of the sort. I only look at MyAir as a novelty, but still, it's amusing to try and figure out what's going on.

Night before last it said 6 times, last night it said 1 time (both nights were the same)