New Mask Data

Can you experienced pillow users critique my first night at home with my new mask (Swift FX Nasal Pillow)? I remember waking around 2:45-300 o'clock and I believe I was mouth-breathing. How do my leaks look otherwise?




I still love this mask - I forget it's there and other than the mouth breathing I pretty much slept through the night.

Thanks!

I usually use ResScan when I look at data from my S9, so I don't remember if Sleepyhead is only showing leak data in excess of 24L/min. Someone else will chime in on that, but it doesn't look to me like anything is going on that the machine can't compensate for.

Green smiley face upon awakening?

Vent rate of Swift FX at 9cm is about 30L/min.

I use a Swift VX as well (almost a year now). Your numbers look great. I've found that comfort and good sleep is the goal (thanks Pugsy) and my numbers usually look like what you are seeing (AHI <3 usually in the 1 range). So what of your mouth opens a bit at night. It is not like you are waking up with desert mouth. It beats taping or wearing a chin strap (which I did for 6 months to "train my brain").

Keep up the good work!

Congrats,
-tino

Tino2You wrote:I've found that comfort and good sleep is the goal

Agreed. I already knew what the display would show when I woke up feeling rested and my persistent neck soreness was gone. In fact, I had to double check that indeed the mask was still on my face.

Has your pressure always been set at 9cm H20?

judging by your leak chart, I'd bet that you are periodically mouth breathing.

try sending your chart via PM to Pugsy for better analysis

Dave

As another contented pillow user and the only thing that would control my leaks was a soft cervical collar, not tight around the neck, just enough to prop my jaw shut. For me, it works better than taping, chin strap or PapCap.

RandyJ wrote:I usually use ResScan when I look at data from my S9, so I don't remember if Sleepyhead is only showing leak data in excess of 24L/min. Someone else will chime in on that, but it doesn't look to me like anything is going on that the machine can't compensate for.

Vent rate of Swift FX at 9cm is about 30L/min.

SleepyHead is showing "unintentional leak" for caff's machine. Leaks beyond the intended venting (intentional leak) of the mask itself (so the 30L/min vent rate of the Swift FX has already been subtracted out). 24 is the "do not cross" line for unintentional leaks.

Caff, you didn't go above 24 for very long. So if your AHI is good, you love the mask, and you slept well, then you're doing great. You could work on reducing leaks to see if you get even better sleep, and some of that leaking does look like mouth opening. Your leak line would have been hard for me to sleep through (which is why I tape ).

Jimster wrote:Has your pressure always been set at 9cm H20?

No - I dropped my min pressure from 9 to 8 last night just because that's where we started in the lab. I'll probably move it back up to 9 tonight. I dont have a set pressure, I'm generally 9-20cm in auto mode.

Denial Dave wrote:judging by your leak chart, I'd bet that you are periodically mouth breathing.try sending your chart via PM to Pugsy for better analysis

My chart? sorry what is that vs. what i posted here?

I'm not chin-strapping based on last night. Only the one mouth-breathing event awakened me. I slept through all the other (minor) leaks.

based upon what I have learned, if your leak chart on sleepyhead shows leaks above 24, then your machine is having trouble providing the proper therapy.

the sleepyhead graphs/ charts you posted look like you hovered at or above the 24 level for most of the night. The listing also shows that for 95% or more of the time your leaks were at 19.2 with a max of 25.2. my uneducated thought is that you may have been mouth breathing a bit during the night

my only suggestion is that to get the most out of your therapy, you might want to work on controlling y.our leaks.

but you are doing great with the new mask!!

Dave

Denial Dave wrote:based upon what I have learned, if your leak chart on sleepyhead shows leaks above 24, then your machine is having trouble providing the proper therapy.

the sleepyhead graphs/ charts you posted look like you hovered at or above the 24 level for most of the night. The listing also shows that for 95% or more of the time your leaks were at 19.2 with a max of 25.2. my uneducated thought is that you may have been mouth breathing a bit during the night

my only suggestion is that to get the most out of your therapy, you might want to work on controlling y.our leaks.

but you are doing great with the new mask!!

Dave

Dave and caff -- Quick correction: The 95% leak number means that for 95% of the time your leak was at OR BELOW 19.2.

Thanks I left that part out by mistake. Pugsy has reminded me of it a few times.

Dave - thanks for the input. The sleep lab tech said i did not mouth breathe at all and I went through 4 normal REM cycles. Not saying that automatically means every night, but I do not believe that I mouth breathed much more than one or two short periods last night based on the chart above. The main question here was to compare/contrast my nasal pillow experience with leaks to what long-term pillow users are experiencing, minus the one known mouth breathing period.

Well...I think that's a perfectly acceptable leak line graph...the bulk of the night you were below 24 L/min.
When you did hit 24 L/min it was sporadic and brief. Right about the time you woke up knowing you were mouth breathing.
Now I know some people wouldn't be happy with that leak line because they are rather sensitive to even minor leaks and if you told me you woke up a gazillion times with leaks...I would tell you to work on the leaks but you say you slept well and remember waking only once really with leaks from the mouth.

There are different levels of mouth breathing. I know because I have woke up with my lips parted a little and I am breathing gently through the slightly parted lips but when I do look at the leak lines I don't see the massive above 24 L/min that one might expect. There's a difference between some gentle mouth breathing and the mouth opening wide enough to put your fist in mouth breathing.

I wouldn't worry about it right now. You have been wearing a full face mask and so the brain is sort of used to "it's okay to breathe through mouth" mode right now.

For 95% of the night you were at OR below that 19 L/min line...people tend to forget the or below part of the definition and think OMG I was at 19 L/min most of the night and that's so close to 24 L/min...I need to fix it.
Well...it only needs fixing if it disturbs sleep.

See this thread...now this is a horrible leak line graph. But I slept through it I think. and I still had Mr Smiley face.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=76445&p=698087&hili ... ne#p698087

Give yourself some time with the new mask and enjoy your sleep. I suspect the mouth breathing will decrease and while it may never go completely away (I know mine hasn't) it isn't bad enough to negatively impact therapy and if it doesn't wake you up so that it negatively impacts sleep quality...who cares if you hit 26 or 28 L/min for a few minutes here and there.

BTW....the machine can still do a decent job of scoring events up till around 35 or 40 L/min then it starts calling them unknowns and you see a bunch of them slip past the defenses because the machine couldn't prevent them..examples in that thread of mine above.

It's not like if you hit 26 L/min that the machine can't do anything at all...it still can do a decent job...above 30 it starts to have its hands tied a bit. Above 45 or so...it says "I quit"..

Last night was even better!

AHI of .8 with 95% leaks < 15. Has anyone else experienced less pressure needs on pillows vs. ffm? Seems my pressure needs have dropped 2cm with this mask.