SleepyHead Data review

[PleaseHelp111]

http://imgur.com/byvXFxr

First night on trial machine

[Pugsy]

Could you go to the machine and confirm the various settings?
The report is showing results that look like cpap mode single pressure yet your settings should have show bilevel pressures.
It's possible that SleepyHead is having a brain fart though...it sometimes gets confused with the AirCurve data.
There is a newer version of SleepyHead that might work better with the AirCurve.
SleepyHead 1.0 Beta but I don't have that link handy. Does someone have that link handy in case we need it???

Otherwise the report looks good. Not sure what to make of the pressure changes and events flagged after the break in therapy....did you have trouble going back to sleep?
I am assuming that you slept until the time you turned the machine off for a little while and then tried again?

[PleaseHelp111]

Could you go to the machine and confirm the various settings?
The report is showing results that look like cpap mode single pressure yet your settings should have show bilevel pressures.
It's possible that SleepyHead is having a brain fart though...it sometimes gets confused with the AirCurve data.
There is a newer version of SleepyHead that might work better with the AirCurve.
SleepyHead 1.0 Beta but I don't have that link handy. Does someone have that link handy in case we need it???

Otherwise the report looks good. Not sure what to make of the pressure changes and events flagged after the break in therapy....did you have trouble going back to sleep?
I am assuming that you slept until the time you turned the machine off for a little while and then tried again?

I will find the new sleepyhead version. My settings were

Max IPAP : 25.0
Min EPAP : 6.0
PS: 2.0
TI Max : 2.0s
TI Min : 0.3s
Trigger: Med
Cycle: Med
Ramp Time Off
Humidity Level 4


Yes, I woke up and took it off for a break, and then put it back on. I had trouble going back to sleep but slept for another hour or so. The data doesn't show everything exactly. I'll have to try again tonight

[Pugsy]

Since this machine is a trial to titrate for pressure needs I think you are doing quite well considering and you are sleeping well enough to get a close idea what your pressure needs are.
It would be nice if they let you keep this machine....it's a sweetheart of a machine.

I know you were given 3 nights....if you continue to be able to sleep as much as you did last night, even with the wake up, they should be able to figure out a suitable pressure range.
Based on what is shown...I would hope they give you at least an apap machine because you seem to need more pressure at some times during the not and not so much other times and that is quite common.
Having the ability to auto adjust means that you can use lower pressures when lower pressures work and only have to use the higher pressures as needed. With fixed single pressure cpap machines you would have to use the higher pressure all night and while not the end of the world....lower pressure is generally more comfortable.

[PleaseHelp111]

Since this machine is a trial to titrate for pressure needs I think you are doing quite well considering and you are sleeping well enough to get a close idea what your pressure needs are.
It would be nice if they let you keep this machine....it's a sweetheart of a machine.

I know you were given 3 nights....if you continue to be able to sleep as much as you did last night, even with the wake up, they should be able to figure out a suitable pressure range.
Based on what is shown...I would hope they give you at least an apap machine because you seem to need more pressure at some times during the not and not so much other times and that is quite common.
Having the ability to auto adjust means that you can use lower pressures when lower pressures work and only have to use the higher pressures as needed. With fixed single pressure cpap machines you would have to use the higher pressure all night and while not the end of the world....lower pressure is generally more comfortable.

I actually wasn't asleep for the full duration with the mask on also. I was just laying there.. breathing into the mask, so the data isn't really 100% accurate. The times I was asleep for sure is 12 - 3 and 6-7, but it doesn't show up

It takes me very long to fall asleep and very hard to get back to sleep once im awake, it's that much harder with the mask on.. and I only have 2 more nights with it. I don't really find it possible to get a full 6-8 hours of sleep recorded into the machine. Most of the time i'm awake so it might show false events..


http://imgur.com/xwX3lTs

This is the updated picture with new version of sleepyhead

[Pugsy]

If you can get a couple more 3 hour sessions they should be able to get you close with a pressure determination but your problems sleeping in larger blocks also could offer more weight in giving you an auto adjusting pressure capable machine. That would cover all potential bases later once you hopefully were able to get longer blocks of sleep. A 3 hour block will usually cover all sleep stages though and give you some REM stage sleep where it is common to often need more pressure during REM.

I don't know why the last segment isn't showing up...it should but maybe it will be added to tonight's data.
Check the clock on the machine to make sure the clock is set to the correct time for your locale. If the clock is wrong the machine maybe thinking that last block came on the new "day". These machines start a new "day" at Noon per the machine clock and when that happens the data line gets fragmented. A new "day" for recording purposes is a 24 hour period beginning at 12 PM or Noon.

[PleaseHelp111]

If you can get a couple more 3 hour sessions they should be able to get you close with a pressure determination but your problems sleeping in larger blocks also could offer more weight in giving you an auto adjusting pressure capable machine. That would cover all potential bases later once you hopefully were able to get longer blocks of sleep. A 3 hour block will usually cover all sleep stages though and give you some REM stage sleep where it is common to often need more pressure during REM.

I don't know why the last segment isn't showing up...it should but maybe it will be added to tonight's data.
Check the clock on the machine to make sure the clock is set to the correct time for your locale. If the clock is wrong the machine maybe thinking that last block came on the new "day". These machines start a new "day" at Noon per the machine clock and when that happens the data line gets fragmented. A new "day" for recording purposes is a 24 hour period beginning at 12 PM or Noon.

Ok. But they don't know that I only slept for 3 hours , so they're taking data from the entire time the machine was on. And a majority of the events occurred when I wasn't asleep. Do I tell them this?

[Pugsy]

You might mention the times that you are fairly certain you were asleep. It won't be unexpected for you to report a lot of awake time on the machine.
In general the pressure shouldn't be moving much unless you were actually asleep because the machine doesn't normally respond to awake events like those clear airway/central events. That's why I am a bit puzzled by the increase after that first break in therapy.
Perhaps you were experiencing some congestion or something that the machine felt like was airflow that was reduced because of airway tissue collapse.

These machines (like you are using) won't/can't respond to the centrals. They are programmed to respond to flow limitation (reductions in air flow) or snores because both are usually signs of the airway tissues wanting to collapse. They also will respond with more pressure when OAs and hyponeas get flagged if they meet the criteria (I forget the exact criteria but it relates to number of them within a certain amount of time).
So something occurred to cause that rather large increase after that first break in therapy when you are pretty sure you were awake and we don't have airway collapses while awake...but maybe some nasal congestion was going on which confused the machine or maybe you sort of were dozing and didn't realize it. Maybe a little snoring during semi awake status. Impossible to know exactly and this is why they get more than 1 night...to get an idea what goes on in general and it really isn't that critical to know exactly what was going on.

I wouldn't worry overly much about it. As long as you can get some sleep in decent blocks they will be able to come up with a suitable pressure range...get you at least real close and later once you get your forever machine we can tweak it a bit should it be necessary. Hopefully you will get a machine that will/can do the tweaking for you in the form of adjusting the pressure on its own. Makes for a much easier time of it.
These settings are working well though. We don't expect total eradication of all events anyway.

Now how to go about dealing with your insomnia...that is a topic for another discussion. If your insomnia is totally related to sleep apnea then it should improved with time but as you know insomnia can come from any number of causes. The machine can fix problems related to sleep apnea but it doesn't do a good job fixing problems unrelated to sleep apnea....like if your insomnia was more related to medication side effects or stress.

[PleaseHelp111]

You might mention the times that you are fairly certain you were asleep. It won't be unexpected for you to report a lot of awake time on the machine.
In general the pressure shouldn't be moving much unless you were actually asleep because the machine doesn't normally respond to awake events like those clear airway/central events. That's why I am a bit puzzled by the increase after that first break in therapy.
Perhaps you were experiencing some congestion or something that the machine felt like was airflow that was reduced because of airway tissue collapse.

These machines (like you are using) won't/can't respond to the centrals. They are programmed to respond to flow limitation (reductions in air flow) or snores because both are usually signs of the airway tissues wanting to collapse. They also will respond with more pressure when OAs and hyponeas get flagged if they meet the criteria (I forget the exact criteria but it relates to number of them within a certain amount of time).
So something occurred to cause that rather large increase after that first break in therapy when you are pretty sure you were awake and we don't have airway collapses while awake...but maybe some nasal congestion was going on which confused the machine or maybe you sort of were dozing and didn't realize it. Maybe a little snoring during semi awake status. Impossible to know exactly and this is why they get more than 1 night...to get an idea what goes on in general and it really isn't that critical to know exactly what was going on.

I wouldn't worry overly much about it. As long as you can get some sleep in decent blocks they will be able to come up with a suitable pressure range...get you at least real close and later once you get your forever machine we can tweak it a bit should it be necessary. Hopefully you will get a machine that will/can do the tweaking for you in the form of adjusting the pressure on its own. Makes for a much easier time of it.
These settings are working well though. We don't expect total eradication of all events anyway.

Now how to go about dealing with your insomnia...that is a topic for another discussion. If your insomnia is totally related to sleep apnea then it should improved with time but as you know insomnia can come from any number of causes. The machine can fix problems related to sleep apnea but it doesn't do a good job fixing problems unrelated to sleep apnea....like if your insomnia was more related to medication side effects or stress.

Thank you. The insomnia comes from anxiety / stress which comes from the lack of sleep.. which then gives me less sleep. so it's a vicious cycle

[palerider]

Could you go to the machine and confirm the various settings?
The report is showing results that look like cpap mode single pressure yet your settings should have show bilevel pressures.

yes, the 098 worked with the aircurves, but didn't work *well* since it came out before they did... the crazy pressure numbers and single pressure trace are the big things.