Concerned about leaks

So I've been seeing other peoples screenshots and their leak data from SH is almost a flatline. I looked at mine and it is all over the place. I am concerned my mask isn't fitting as good as the machine says it is when I do a mask fit test. I keep my facial hair trimmed very close but I do not shave it all off, just use a beard trimmer to get it as low as it will go. I have 2 of the same mask, one has a padacheek on it and the other doesn't. First screenshot is of last night with the padacheek and the next one is without. Without is better, but still seems like a lot of leaks to me.

Do the leaks wake you up?

While not the prettiest of leak graphs you don't really go into large leak territory all that much so if you are sleeping soundly and feeling decent then I don't know that I would worry about not being so pretty.

Want to see a really ugly leak report?

If they wake me up, I am not conscious of it. I do know that I have been feeling much more rested since starting and the dark circles under my eyes are almost gone. Just a bit concerned when I see all of the leaks...but if they aren't going into large territory often I won't concern myself. I know that myAir is not the best for data but I do check it and so far they haven't flagged me for leaks...just mask offs which I think is me adjusting the mask before I fall asleep. Takes a bit to get it situated just right.

My own personal opinion about leaks....as long as they don't disturb my sleep and/or venture into large leak territory for prolonged periods of time I don't worry about them. I don't even worry about short lived excursions into large leak territory.
The above ugly report I shared...those leaks woke me up often. I was trying a new mask and still struggling with finding just the right tension on the straps.

You are using a full face mask and just from the surface area involved requiring skin contact you are going to have more challenges than I do with my nasal pillow mask. I think your leak graphs really look quite decent for a full face mask. Yeah, it's nice to see those perfect 0.0 flat lines when we get lucky enough to have it happen but other than getting to pat ourselves on the back for a good job flat leak lines don't guarantee much. Sometimes getting that nice flat leak line causes more problems than a person might have had in the first place.
Sometimes the cure is worse than the disease if you know what I mean.

Since you report sleeping soundly and actually feeling decent ....I would shrug my shoulders about the leak lines and move on.
Now if you reported waking often even with the teeny tiny leaks...then I would say work on fixing them but because they are disturbing your sleep. Anything that disturbs our sleep is unwanted.

Good to know. Being new to all, trying to digest as much info as I can. I don't mind the full face mask, but am considering switching to a hybrid. I tend to mouth breath periodically so I can't do just nasal pillows. Since my DME seems to push for the resmed masks, was considering trying out a Mirage Liberty.

Not a bad chart at all actually. Your AHI number is respectable. As mentioned earlier, your leaks while not terrible could be controlled a little better.

There are other solutions to prevent mouth breathing if using nasal pillows or a nasal mask. You could try a chin strap or use a $6-10 Walmart soft cervical pillow which would also help with positional obstructive apneas. But it doesn't look like you have any positional obstructive issues. Some people tape their mouth to prevent mouth leaks, but I have never been a fan of that.

I see that you are bumping up into your max setting quite often and you are not experiencing any CA events, only Obstructives and Hypopneas. I would suggest taking your minimum up to 9 and your Max up to 15. Keep in mind the machine will only keep going higher on your max if it senses precursors to apneas like flow limits or snore events. Or after an actual event. Going up to 15 may give you a bit more headroom to help against the few obstructives and hypopneas you are experiencing.

But if you did nothing, that would be fine also. Your numbers are not bad by any means. More importantly, how are you feeling?

Feeling good aside from trying to figure out why SleepyHead data for last night won't import more than summary data and that data is incorrect by a long shot when compared to myAir as far as # of events and time slept.

mharrison wrote:trying to figure out why SleepyHead data for last night won't import more than summary data and that data is incorrect by a long shot when compared to myAir as far as # of events and time slept.

Did you by chance forget to put the SD card back into your machine and instead left it in the computer over night and then put it in the machine?
The SD card MUST be in the machine all night during use to get more than the summary data and those missing data files are also needed for accurate summary AHI.

Pugsy wrote:
Did you by chance forget to put the SD card back into your machine and instead left it in the computer over night and then put it in the machine?
The SD card MUST be in the machine all night during use to get more than the summary data and those missing data files are also needed for accurate summary AHI.

Yeah I figured that out when I remembered the very first night I used it I didn't have an SD card and it did the same thing. So have a couple nights with junk data to ignore...I'd delete them out but I figure it will just import back in anyway.

mharrison wrote:I'd delete them out but I figure it will just import back in anyway.

Delete them out of SleepyHead??? Yeah, the machine has already put it that way on the SD card so SleepyHead would just import it again. Not much you could do with the SH reports except just turn off the whole session then it will look like you didn't use the machine...so that would mess things up too.

In the long run a few nights with summary only usage isn't going to make a huge difference long term anyway.

Now you could use ResScan but I don't know that it is worth all that hassle just to get 100% accuracy on a handful of summary reports.
ResScan doesn't need all those missing files that SleepyHead needs so the ResScan summary stuff is likely to be more accurate on summary nights only. I have done it but the differences weren't all that huge for me...talking maybe a 2.0 difference in AHI maybe. Just not worth the hassle to me and I am long past worrying about small differences anyway on these reports. I just downloaded today and hadn't downloaded for well over 2 months and the only reason I did today was because I am experimenting again with a new mask and I wanted to check leak numbers.

I like what marillion said "minimum up to 9 and your Max up to 15."

do you use the mask fit setting, where it blows high pressure and do you lay down when you do it?
Have you seen the mask fit link http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... ask_Primer ?

My problem is I don't really want to mess with the machine too much. Not sure what my insurance would say changing the settings. Once I'm out of the trial period and it's mine I'll feel more comfortable changing things.

I do use the mask fit every night lying down just to keep an eye for headgear stretch and such.

Your insurance company doesn't care what the settings are or who makes them. All insurance cares about is if you use the machine the required number of hours.

I don't see any urgent reason to change the pressure settings though at this time based on what limited information you have shown.

I can't really tell from the images you posted if you were maxing out the 11 for very long but based on the nice low AHI...even if you were maxing out the pressure at 11 I don't see any real urgent need to change anything at this point.
It's not like your AHI is high and there are dense clusters of apnea events happening when the pressure is at 11 and maxed out and wanting to go higher.
Yeah, maybe a little tweaking later but nothing looks urgent at this time to go tweaking.