Almost There...

I have noticed with my Aloha that it just doesn't leak. Or so I thought. I check sleepyhead and it shows that it does leak. The first night that I used it I had zero leakage 95 percent of the time. Then after a few nights the leaks started. I don't ever feel any leaks. I have to try really hard to get it to leak when I'm awake. It's just an awesome mask. I think I have finally found something that might save my cpap compliance. So my question is, "Should I worry about the leaks?" Also, in reference to the 'clear airways," does this mean that I have central sleep apnea events, or is this something to do with the software? It's never really high. For instance, last night my total AHI was less than 2. But not counting the CA it was less than one. Maybe I shouldn't even look at sleepyhead and just go with the pressure of 9 that I was prescribed. For some reason though if I let my machine do it, it will go above that and even past 10. Last night I set it to a straight 5. The numbers simply didn't change. They're pretty much the same if it's 5, 9, 10, or anywhere in between. So, sorry for rambling but I'm confused about a few things. Thanks for everyone's patience!

Should you worry about leaks?
Well it depends on 3 things IMHO...just how bad are they...how long are they "really" bad...do they wake you up at all?

Any leak that disturbs sleep needs to be fixed even if it is a tiny leak but because it is disturbing sleep itself and not so much from a therapy aspect.

I don't panic over leaks that even go into large leak territory for a short period of time...that's where the "how long and how bad" come into play.

If your 95% leak numbers on your ResMed machine are below 24 L/min and leaks are not disturbing your sleep then I wouldn't be worrying about them.
Now if those 95% numbers are up around 24 L/min or higher then I would want to look more closely at the actual leak line to see just how bad they might have been and how long they might have been up there.
5 minutes at 29 L/min isn't the end of the world...50 minutes at 35 L/min is a different story and warrants work.

It's normal to have a few clear airway/central events flagged. Some might be the real deal as in sleep onset centrals but we don't worry about those unless present in large numbers or really disturbing sleep.
Some might be awake/semi awake breathing irregularities or SWJ Sleep/Wake/Junk and we have to ignore those. If your clear airway/central hourly average is 1 or less...even if they are all the real deal they aren't present in enough numbers to worry about.

Numbers aren't everything. The goal isn't to get a perfect math score...the goal is to get more restful and restorative sleep with "acceptable" math score. We tend to be a numbers based population who look to the numbers for validation and the sole indicator of how we should feel or how we should sleep but numbers are just a small part in this whole cpap therapy thing. Getting good numbers is relatively easy...feeling the good numbers is the hard part for a lot of people.

So...how is the sleep quality with the Aloha mask? Hours of sleep? Wake up often? Feel any better in terms of restful sleep?

Thanks for your time Pugsy. As always. My mask feels great. My main issue right now is a sore throat and irritated nose. I don't have any dry mouth so I'm not sure if I have just come down with something and it was just a big coincidence or not. My eyes are really irritated as well so I may have allergy problems. When I stay on my pressure of 9 I feel like I sleep great. Of course right now my sleep is really fragmented because I'm coming off some potent ADs. (From 20mg of Lexapro and 2 mg of Xanax everyday) Considering I've been taking this medicine for 15 years I am not really sure I know how "normal" is supposed to feel but I'm now down to just 5 mg of Lexapro and .75 mg of Xanax daily and it has been ROUGH. Starting CPAP and tapering of my meds at the same time was probably not the smartest thing to do. Had I not found the Aloha mask though I would have given up completely on CPAP. I just wander about my sore throat and nose. I see that you use pillows. Was this a problem for you in the beginning?

The only nasal or throat issues I have ever had were related to insufficient humidity delivery.
My nasal mucosa simply needs more moisture to be happy.
Once I tried reducing the setting to 1...bad idea...immediate horrible allergy like symptoms.
Took me 3 days to feel better and I know it was related to humidity delivered because over the years it has happened again when I have forgotten to add water to the water chamber and ended up using it without water in it.

Sore throat...could maybe be mouth breathing and it doesn't take all that much mouth breathing to dry out the throat and cause discomfort...and it may not even show up on the leak graph if the amount of mouth breathing is minimal. I did an experiment once with minor mouth breathing while I was awake for 15 minutes just to see what it looked like on the leak graph and to my surprise it barely showed up.

Humidity needs are highly personal and individualized. Some people like me would snort water if they could and other people find that they do better with minimal added moisture. So that's just something you have to sort out yourself but if going with the odds...more moisture. I did a poll once to get an idea which way people went and the slight majority went to the "more moisture" side of things.

Of course it could simply be allergies...treat the symptoms like you would no matter what the cause.
Get some Simply Saline and use it often. Decongestants as needed and as tolerated by your body.
Finally...there is a nasty upper respiratory bug going around and you will know real quick if you have picked it up. It starts out as a mild scratchy sore throat and quickly goes to the lungs with lots of coughing and feeling like crap. Didn't cause me much nasal congestion like a typical cold might when I had it.
My husband brought it home to me and he had mainly the coughing/lung congestion issues too. I have since learned of many people having same sort of symptoms. Not a typical summer cold at all. Only takes a day or two to get to the lungs though so if you are having that happen...you will know real soon.