Understanding leaks

When I look at info on the screen on top of my machine I see 100% non leaking. When I look at SleepyHead I see two lines of matching squiggles all under the max of 25 on the chart. I think the 100% must be for lack of large leaks only. I have searched around but don't understand the set of two lines on the graph. Can someone explain why there are two and what each of them means?

Have a look at my signature, and load your own by going to Control Panel and choosing the equipment option. When folks can see what equipment and pressures you're using, your question can be answered. "Large Leaks" and what you see in both Sleepyhead and the proprietary software for your brand (that you can get access to from thus forum) are different for different machine brands and models.

Welcome to the forum!

Thanks, I added my information.

viewtopic/t88983/Pugsys-PointersSleepyH ... nding.html

Check out above thread and if you still need help understanding leaks post back with specific questions and we will try to explain further.

Pugsy, I did read all of your excellent posts on SleepyHead. Your example seemed to show a flat upper line and the graph high and lows. Mine has two squiggly lines equidistant apart nearly the exact pattern repeated. I tried to do a cut and paste using Snipping tool but it didn't work. Is there a way to add an enclosure to send an example?

Give me a few minutes to get something together that should explain things a little better for you. I know I have explained it in the past...now just need to find where.

I added a bit of clarification to the PR S1 leak line explanations.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=88983&p=879474#p879474
See if that helps you out.

Thanks again, that helped. The graphs are a little intimidating with too little knowledge. I now have a better understanding of what the lines mean. I will read more about everything and just go by the daily and statistics and daily page. As long as no major changes occur I won't worry.
I just saw my doctor for my first "after CPap visit" and he was surprised happy. He told me my two sleep test sessions were so bad(very high levels) he didn't think I would be successful. Said my readings were excellent and I don't need a return appointment just call if any concerns. All numbers in the SleepyHead I now realized are great. AHI 2.2 average, RERA 5.09,95% TLs 14.24. I will look around for levels of "normal" human beings.
I have already learned a lot from your tutorials and will continue studying them. This is a great website I told my doctor about it, and SleepyHead, and my cloth mask. He is going to check out all for other patients.

Pugsy...are you saying that you should strive for 0 leaks? mine were fairly flat with a spike. I think the spike is maybe a head movement that causes the nasal pillow to move and leak. I sometimes wake up with it leaking. I was having an almost consistent 3am-4am spike once a day. Now, it's doing little spikes with the big one at 3-4am. Today was the first day that I woke up feeling really good! but I'm doing brief mini spikes, then fairly flat, then my daily.

I'm wondering if the worsening of the leaks could be due to my pillow being a month old???? I'm trying to survive until my pillows can be swapped for the small (dr's office gave me med). Even then, I like the Swift LT and I am getting FX pillows. So I guess I suffer on the FX for awhile, then when I repurchase, I go for LT.

MitzyG wrote:Pugsy...are you saying that you should strive for 0 leaks?

No. I don't strive for 0.0 perfect flat line zero leaks.
Now there are people who aren't happy unless they get 0.0 leak...but I am not one of them.

I am good with "within acceptable limits" as long as leaks don't disturb my sleep.
I am even okay with short periods of time spent in large leak.
Sometimes fixing a 10 minute big leak causes a lot more problems than that 10 minutes of big leak might have caused.

I can get a perfectly flat 0.0 excess leak line if I wanted to...no spikes or bumps. All I would have to do is tape my mouth shut.
Tape itself is annoying though and I would rather not add another annoyance to my nightly routine unless I just had to.

Actually....I guess I don't strive for a "perfect" anything when it comes to the reports....
My main goal has always been been get good sleep first and I have never worried about minor differences in data points.
I am happy with less than "perfect" as long as I am sleeping well and feeling decent.
Perfect numbers don't guarantee anything except a nice math score.

Hi Pugsy
Welcome back ... so to continue the conversation, the new information helps and brings up another question....

looking at the top line in your leak graph it shows just under 30 as a "base". Does it show this level typically every day or does it vary? Looking at my last few days I see that mine changes - perhaps some nights I have a different leak, my pressures are fixed so that does not explain it. Last night my "bottom"of the top line is 26 and the night before it was 18. Anything I should look at?
thanks! Paul

pbriggs wrote:looking at the top line in your leak graph it shows just under 30 as a "base". Does it show this level typically every day or does it vary?

A quick glance at the "baseline" for the last 30 days or so shows it varies a bit...Around 24 L/min to around 34 L/min.

pbriggs wrote:Last night my "bottom"of the top line is 26 and the night before it was 18. Anything I should look at?

I wouldn't give it a second thought myself.

I think people in general seem to want to make these numbers a lot more important than they really are.
They want to think in terms of absolutes with no room for general normal variables.
Remember...the machine has no idea at all what mask you are using. Instead it likely takes some sort of "baseline" evaluation at the beginning of the night when we assume leaks shouldn't be a factor and tries to establish a general guideline for trends.
The actual difference between a leak rate of 20 L/min and 30 L/min...probably is not all that meaningful and the bulk of the difference falls within standard deviation numbers anyway.
It's a close estimate as to baseline but it is still an estimate and never designed to be an "exact" value for anything.

This data was never meant to be put under the microscope at this level (worrying about a baseline difference of 25 L/min total leak over say 35 L/min).

very good - this helps - thanks!