Sandman Auto Software query

The reporting is divided into sessions, and each session is an uninterrupted period when the machine is making pressure. The data from these sessions are used in the reporting.

Sometimes, during the last recorded session of the morning, or an afternoon session when I am trying to nap, I will not get to sleep. However, the session (when I am not sleeping) is still used in the analysis and reporting, resulting in false data.

I have looked in the manual but can find no way to delete a particular session, nor can I find a way to turn off the machine recording for these sessions when I may not get to sleep.

I would prefer to delete the unwanted sessions, and in the compliance report there is a box at bottom right which says exclude invalid zones, but I do not know what that means, or how to get it to work. Ticking the box does not appear to make any difference, and in any case how do I highlight what I think is an invalid zone. And is a zone on the report the same as a session.

So there we are, if anyone can help I would be very grateful, as I do want accurate data.

cheers

Mars

The only way I discovered for doing that, on the Sandman's predecessor was using the data export option.
Silverlining creates comma delimited records, I import them to Excel, and use a fromula to ignore any sessions shorter than 60 minutes. Of course you can simply delete a session you don't want when you use Excel.

O.

ozij wrote:The only way I discovered for doing that, on the Sandman's predecessor was using the data export option.
Silverlining creates comma delimited records, I import them to Excel, and use a fromula to ignore any sessions shorter than 60 minutes. Of course you can simply delete a session you don't want when you use Excel.

O.

Hi Ozij

I am not computer illiterate, but I have never used Excell or any other spreadsheet. Given that I have poor concentration due to many years of sleep apnea, is there a straightforward text manual which will guide me in creating the spreadsheet.

I assume, then, that I cannot delete these sessions from the machine or from my 1.4 data base.

Thanks again, Ozij.

cheers

Mars

To learn Excel I am a big fan if of the "Dummies" series of manuals.
Technical training can be very boring (it actually could help you sleep)
Importing a comma separated value (CSV) file is an intermediate type of activity.
Check it out. See what you think.

http://www.amazon.com/Excel-2003-Dummie ... 484&sr=8-2

The first thing to check is if your version of the software lets you export data.
If it does not, there's not much you can do, except fill the data in daily manually into any table. If it does, the rest it easy - and Microsoft has excellent tutorials for its software - but before you start anything, let us know if the export option can be found anywhere in the Sandman ver. 1.4 software.

O.

ozij wrote:The first thing to check is if your version of the software lets you export data.
If it does not, there's not much you can do, except fill the data in daily manually into any table. If it does, the rest it easy - and Microsoft has excellent tutorials for its software - but before you start anything, let us know if the export option can be found anywhere in the Sandman ver. 1.4 software.

O.

It does have an export option. I tried it out and got a text file of many (slightly familiar) numbers and characters. So I will now try to find an Excel manual, and see if I can make sense of it.

cheers

Mars

Mars, here is a thread on using the exported text, at least getting it into a reabable format. viewtopic.php?p=335818#p335818
However, I found it to be of not much use as Iim not that detail orientated to be all consumed by the data and reworking it or even interpreting. The Sandman software and v1.4 does a much better job. When I first started with the PAP therapy, I didn't really know what I was reading in the reports and it took a while for me to get my mask settled, the leaks settled, my sleep settled, and so on, so my reports would not have been accurate anyway, except that they showed me that changes needed to be made, so in fact they were of great use. Your time not sleeping, may also be somewhat worth recording so that you know just that. Sometimes our daydreaming or dreams may have us thinking we're awake when in fact we're not. A good example to me of that were my 2 sleep studies when I could have sworn that I was awake the entire time, when in fact I clearly wasn't based on the data collected, (though my sleep was shorter than normal and fragmented).

So instead of trying to delete sessions, something that I've not looked into trying to do as it's of no interest to me or my reports, perhaps work on getting yourself used to PAP therapy and understanding the reports as they are. Once you start to nail down your therapy, you'll have good comparison data to your various sleep states, real or perceived. Also, I only look at my daily data, either each day or every 2-3 days, and during that time period, I can recall (usually) what went on and if the data was skewed. I don't often go back 7 - 19, 47 and so on sessions back to compare data as I know that my therapy is a work in progress anyway until I get things settled out. Also, I go by how I feel too. If I feel poor, I'll scrutinize the data to try and figure out what was going on and try to figure out a why. Perhaps if I was awake, then that data shows as not having any events, but at least I'll remember that for the short term and know that the data wasn't relevant to not having apneas because I was asleep.

Also, the software eventually records over it's own sessions, (I think that I read that v1.4 records 140 days before it records over the early days), so eventually your early days will be removed from the daily view unless you go back to view an early file. Each download has a unique file name, so you shouldn't record one file over another unless you name them the same. But your current download is the viewed file of the last 140 days. The others are there too, but with different file names in your Patient #xxxxx folder.

For me, I just worry about the data when Iim feeling really tired. I would have my doubts that you'll want to fuss with the exported data in any spreadsheet, as even when it's properly formatted, its A LOT of data that is not easily read. So while you can edit the spreadsheet, IMO, it would only be valuable, if you could re-import it into the Sandman software to view it corrected.

MtnViewer

Thanks, that was really good advice.

I was starting to think that I was going a bit too far with this thing, and that I basically had the data that was useful to me.

I still do not understand all the report, but as you say that will take time, and, no doubt, more questions.

Also I have other medical problems that need my attention, and I also want to live my life outside the medical problem area.

So thanks again. I will slow down, take a deep breath, and consolidate.

cheers

Mars