My story with a SH Screenshot from 6/20/2017

[Mr. REM]

After having a study for Sleep Apnea, it was determined that I had Obstructed Sleep Apnea with a Prescription for a CPAP fixed at 18cmH2O. I demanded a APAP with a heated humidifier. I got my APAP Dreamstation Machine with heated humidifier in Feb 2017. I set the APAP to be fixed at 18cmH2O for 38 days and had "ok" success. I decided to "unlock" my APAP and download data to SH and let the machine give me some stats. I played with the mins and maxs and I think "maybe", I have come close to where I need to be, which is min of 12cmH2O max of 20cmH2O. I'm willing to listen to experts on this site to analyze my data.

I do have a couple of questions:
1. I don't feel like I am snoring at all. Any suggestions?
2. I'm thinking of bumping up the min to 13cmH2O. Any suggestions?

Here is the data from Respironics Dreammapper App:
AHI = 0.3
Usage = 8:05 hours
Mask Fit = 100%

Here is the data from SleepyHead:
The last time you used your Philips Respironics Auto CPAP...
was last night (on Tuesday, June 20, 2017)
You had an AHI of 0.37, which is considered pretty darn good
You machine was on for 8 hours, 5 minutes and 3 seconds.
You had no major mask leaks (maximum was 11.00 L/min).
Your pressure was under 13cmH2O for 90% of the time.

[Pugsy]

The machine doesn't appear to be concerned about the snores. Don't know why unless maybe everything else is fine.
Seems like some snores the machine will be aggressive with and some it isn't. We are never told exactly what the difference is but I have seen similar (and worse) reports where the machine pretty much seems to ignore the snores.

There's no urgent need to change that minimum. It's obvious the machine doesn't feel the need to go higher but if you want to try 13 minimum and see how you feel it wouldn't hurt anything to try it. Are those snores enough to impact your sleep and thus impact how you feel?? Dunno...maybe.....maybe not.

I think this is where "how you feel" and "sleep quality" plays and important factor. When I was on APAP I experimented with going with a higher minimum after it was determined that I needed 10 min and 20 max. I did an experiment where I went up slowly in 0.5 cm increments from the 10.0 to 13.0. So it took me about 6 weeks because I stayed at each setting for about a week. Finally made it to 13.0 and looked back at all the reports and for the most part they were pretty much all the same. No real difference in the AHI or the snores or FLs (which were both minimal at 10 but numerous at 9 cm) and more importantly I couldn't tell any difference in either how I felt during the day or how I slept.
So I went back down to 10 minimum having satisfied my curiosity about what would happen if I used a higher minimum....nothing...in my case.

If you haven't tried a higher minimum and are curious...wouldn't hurt to try it and see what happens or doesn't happen.
The snores themselves aren't bad enough to do anything about as long as they aren't waking you up...or your bed partner.

[LSAT]

If you are sleeping comfortably, don't change a thing.

[palerider]

The machine doesn't appear to be concerned about the snores.

I only see one 'real' snore, and the pressure bumped up for a bit after it... I don't think respirs raise pressure for VS2 (whatever those are), do they?

[Pugsy]

I only see one 'real' snore, and the pressure bumped up for a bit after it... I don't think respirs raise pressure for VS2 (whatever those are), do they?

Respironics doesn't appear to get excited at all about VS2 snores. I never understood why they bother to flag them if they don't care about them and like you I don't know what they are. Never could wrap my head around VS1 vs VS2 and to be honest never really tried to. I figure I have to trust the machine and so that's what I do and if it doesn't get excited then neither will I.

I did try to "make" some snores back when we thought a lot of "snores" was hose movement on something. So I tried a bunch of different things making the hose make noise to see if the machine would pick them up but I never could get the machine to even flag the noise and/or rubbing on something (which caused vibration).
But it would pick up Sarge's snores when he slept with his little chin on my shoulder...I got flags but no reaction from the machine. Don't remember if they were VS2 or not or even if the machine that I was using at the time separated them. All I know was I had some ugly dense snore flags and the machine set there and twiddled its little thumbs.

[palerider]

I only see one 'real' snore, and the pressure bumped up for a bit after it... I don't think respirs raise pressure for VS2 (whatever those are), do they?

Respironics doesn't appear to get excited at all about VS2 snores. I never understood why they bother to flag them if they don't care about them and like you I don't know what they are. Never could wrap my head around VS1 vs VS2 and to be honest never really tried to.

the only thing I remember about it when I was helping on the sleepyhead development is that encore shows vs1 as snore on one chart, and vs2 as snore on another chart.. confusingly. I think the regular chart shows vs1 as snore, and the pages of flow charts show vs2... but I could be mis-remembering, it's been a while.

twiddled its little thumbs.

that is a favorite passtime of respironics machines, imo.

[Mr. REM]

Here is the data from Respironics Dreammapper App June 21, 2017:
AHI = 0.2
Usage = 7:38 hours
Mask Fit = 100%

I decided (for now) to leave my settings at 12cmH2O - 20cmH2O. As for snoring, I do have a full face mask, but I feel my mouth is closed most of the night. I still don't think I am snoring. I might try another type mask (nasal pillow), just for the hell of it at some point. I do have a 100% mask fit most nights. I sleep on my back, left side, right side, it just doesn't matter. The ONE thing that has really helped my sleep apnea is I had surgery on my nose May 2017. Septoplasty (SEP-toe-plas-tee) is a surgical procedure to correct a deviated septum — a displacement of the bone and cartilage that divides your two nostrils. During septoplasty, your nasal septum is straightened and repositioned in the middle of your nose. For my entire life I felt I was not breathing to good out of my left nostril. My Ear Nose Throat Dr. did an incredible job in correcting and opening "wide" my nostrils.

Here is the data from SleepyHead June 21, 2017:
The last time you used your Philips Respironics Auto CPAP...
was last night (on Wednesday, June 21, 2017)
You had an AHI of 0.26, which is considered pretty darn good
You machine was on for 7 hours, 38 minutes and 17 seconds.
You had no major mask leaks (maximum was 12.00 L/min).
Your pressure was under 13.5cmH2O for 90% of the time.

[Pugsy]

How are you sleeping and feeling in general?

I don't see anything urgently requiring any changes.
I would ignore the VS2 snores if it were me. Maybe the machine is picking up some unknown noise or vibration from something. This is where we used to wonder if the hose was rubbing on something and causing a bit of noise/vibration that the machine was picking up but realized it wasn't related to the airway tissues so it did nothing.

Really it's a pretty boring report. The little spikey saw tooth looking pressure increases are the machine doing its test pressure probes...most of the time it doesn't do anything but those things. There's a little bit of an increase at the beginning of that last sleep session but it doesn't last long. Maybe related to sleep position...not a big deal though and I wouldn't give it any thought. It's just the machine doing its job.

I would question whether you need the 12.0 minimum since the machine really doesn't do much roaming around but it hurts nothing to use a little more than you might technically need in terms of AHI, etc as long as you are happy with it and sleeping great and feeling good.

Looking pretty darn good...at least on paper.

[Mr. REM]

Ty for your insight Pugsy.

I am sleeping like a rock and when I wake up I feel like Superman. So far my sleep apnea treatment is going good. I am learning, educating myself, experimenting and trying to keep everything in perspective. Before I started treating my Sleep Apnea, for years I was that guy that was snoring loudly, stopped breathing for periods of time and waking up feeling like crap. I'm glad I finally took the initiative to get my sleep apnea treated.

[Pugsy]

I wouldn't mess with success. I wouldn't change a thing unless you just are curious about something or other.
I did some of that curiosity experimenting stuff about 6 months into therapy just to see "what if" but it wasn't because I was unhappy with my therapy which was quite decent. I was having some staying asleep issues unrelated to sleep apnea and was hoping for a miracle but it didn't happen....not that I really expected it to. I would have had those same issues if I didn't have sleep apnea so I had to work on those issues separately.

You are sleeping great....feeling great and your reports are boring....can't ask for much more than that. Good job.

[Mr. REM]

A few days ago, my wife and I had a death in the family. I haven't been able to sleep completely through the night, but thought I would share what a AHI of 0.00 looks like. I was only able to sleep for a little over 4 hours.

Here is the data from Respironics Dreammapper App June 22, 2017:
AHI = 0.00
Usage = 4:08 hours
Mask Fit = 100%

Here is the data from SleepyHead June 22, 2017
The last time you used your Philips Respironics Auto CPAP...
was last night (on Thursday, June 22, 2017)
You had an AHI of 0.00, which is considered perfect
You machine was on for 4 hours, 7 minutes and 53 seconds.
You had no major mask leaks (maximum was 10.00 L/min).
Your pressure was under 15cmH2O for 90% of the time.