Question About Sleepy Head Graphs

On the pressure graph, there are two lines. One green and one red. What's the difference? I assume that one is maximum (red) and one is minimum (green). The red line always bumps my uppermost level (9.0) throughout the night, but my median pressure is around 8.0. Does this mean that if my upper pressure level were adjusted to say 12, that I might see spikes that go that high and that my median pressure would likely increase? I find it interesting that the doctor prescribed pressures between 5-9 because at 9.0 he saw the best results. Yet the flat red line running along 9.0 seems to imply that my pressure has a lot of room to grow.

Also on the AHI graph I notice that the red line will lie flat against the upper limit (3.0) for as much as an hour but my overall AHI will be something like 0.6. Does the flat line running along 3.0 mean that it could really be higher if only the vertical axis were higher, or is a flat line of 3.0 for an hour the real upper limit?

thanks

2 pressure lines...usually means exhale relief is being used....so are you using EPR?
It has nothing to do with what the minimum and maximum pressure settings might be.

AHI graph...useless...it shows the AHI for that one hour only and resets every hour so it will show flat line for that one hour.

Yes, my DME enabled my EPR. It's on, full time, and at level 2. So are you saying that the lower (green line) is exhale pressure and the top (red) line is the cpap pressure variations through the night? And the top line can't exceed 9.0 because the machine is capped at that point?

Top line is the inhale pressure...bottom line is the exhale pressure and they can both go up and down within whatever parameters have been set and since the max pressure is 9 then inhale can only go to 9 and with EPR at 2 that makes exhale at 7.
Now in auto mode if the machine thinks it only needs to go to 8 then that's where it will go on inhale and then exhale will be 6.
With EPR involved the difference between inhale and exhale will be the EPR setting.
That's the way ResMed's EPR works.
Now for you all that are Respironics users...it's sort of similar but not exact because the reduction on Respironics machines is based on how forcefully you breathe or don't breathe more than just the actual reduction setting.

If you are spending very much time with the machine maxed out at 9 cm then probably increasing the max might be something to consider.
If you barely touch it briefly and rarely then I don't know that more max is even needed. The machine won't increase the pressure without what it considers a good reason. Sometimes increasing the pressure can cause more problems than it fixes so sometimes it's best to cap that max but if it wants to go higher and going higher doesn't cause any problems (aerophagia, leaks, centrals, wake ups, whatever) then it doesn't hurt anything to open the max and let the machine sort it out. Just because the machine can go higher doesn't mean that it will and if it doesn't go anywhere near the max then the max setting is a moot point.

For newbies just getting used to this whole setup...unless there is an urgent need to open the range or change the pressures then I don't normally suggest it because it can sometimes just add more potential annoyances that can mess with sleep.
Some people find that the variations in pressure are more of a disturbance to sleep than a help...so sometimes restricting pressure movement is a better option.
Time to sort out all the little fine tweaks later once a person gets more adjusted overall to cpap therapy.