First night with New APAP - Sleepyhead Stats

[teffers]

So I've been on CPAP for 10 years with an initial diagnosis of OSA. Changed sleep clinics and have been given a Philips Respironics Dreamstation.

My untreated AHI score is 33 (had a home test 3 weeks ago).

This is my first night of use with my replacement machine so I'm after some feedback regarding the statistics from Sleepyhead if possible please

This is the first time I've had a machine capable of providing detailed information so I'm really interested to get some insight, thanks everyone.

If I've missed anything please let me know. I'm intrigued to see RERA events especially as I hardly ever feel 'good' after a nights seep even though my AHI looks OK.

The Dreamweaver app on my phone is telling me I had 14 disconnects too.

[palerider]

The only thing I'd suggest about your screenshot itself, in the future, if you have a short session like that at the start (playing with the machine, or something), and a lot of whitespace, just turn off that short session over at the bottom of the left panel.

No need to repost the screenshot though.

Your numbers look very good, the only thing, since you say you're still tired, that I would suggest is raising the min pressure a little more... you've got some periods where the machine thinks you're doing great (that's where there's those spikes in the pressure line) but there's places where you're not.

Raising the pressure a bit *may* result in smoother sleep... or it may not, but it's an easy thing to try. Give it a few days to see, if you do try it.

[teffers]

The only thing I'd suggest about your screenshot itself, in the future, if you have a short session like that at the start (playing with the machine, or something), and a lot of whitespace, just turn off that short session over at the bottom of the left panel.

No need to repost the screenshot though.

Your numbers look very good, the only thing, since you say you're still tired, that I would suggest is raising the min pressure a little more... you've got some periods where the machine thinks you're doing great (that's where there's those spikes in the pressure line) but there's places where you're not.

Raising the pressure a bit *may* result in smoother sleep... or it may not, but it's an easy thing to try. Give it a few days to see, if you do try it.

Thanks Palerider, your feedback is much appreciated.

When I say I don't feel 'good' it's usually not sleepy but rather anxious / stressed / brain-fogged.

My initial pressure range was set by the consultant at the nightmare inducing 4 - 20 range but after my phonecall yesterday with Philips Respironics they spoke to my clinic and had the ranged shortened to 15 - 20 remotely. I can access the clinical menu but at this point I'm gonna try and leave on the range they've set it to, with a view to reducing it later. My therapeutic pressure on fixed CPAP (used up until April this year) was 17.5 cmH20.

I'm struggling with the mask I was given so tried an alternative last night which seemed OK.

Thanks again.

[Pugsy]

How many sessions are you seeing on the left side at the bottom?
If 2..that seems to be correct based on the report. I don't see 14 disconnects and if you have 14 or 15 sessions over there then you might have a machine reporting multiple sessions that didn't happen.

I don't know what to make of the RERAs right now especially if you are reporting mask comfort issues during the night. Means you were likely awake and just having mulitple awakenings will make you feel less optimal and also increase the chances that the flags you see are more related to awake breathing than asleep breathing.

You might want to take a crash course in learning how to distinguish awake breathing or arousal breathing flagged events from asleep flagged events. These machines only report on air flow. They have no way to know if we are asleep or not. They can and will flag awake/semi awake breathing irregularities by mistake and if we aren't asleep...they don't count except for the fact they prove we maybe didn't sleep so great. Now why we maybe didn't sleep so great....that's a different problem to sort through. Not everything is about cpap or sleep apnea.

Go here and read and watch all the videos
http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software
It will help you learn to figure out awake vs asleep flagging. Not long ago I had a night with AHI of 3 something which is unusually high for me. I decided to take the time to zoom in on each flagged event (nice mixture of CAs/centrals, OAs and hyponeas) and it was fairly easy to see that every single one of those events I wasn't asleep when it was flagged. They were all what we call SWJ or sleep/wake/junk false positive flags. So we wonder why so many flags which essentially means crappy sleep....well in my case I was having some back pain issues..more than usual and I was doing a LOT of tossing and turning and remember lots of wake ups from the discomfort. I simply had a crappy night of sleep due to pain...and despite the AHI of 3 something...totally unrelated to sleep apnea or cpap issues. As much as I might want it to my little machine can't do a damn thing about my back.

Have fun with your new data...go learn some stuff.
Get used to the new machine and how it does things and the mask...
Watch for the machine reporting more sessions than you actually had...that means there's a problem with the machine. It's rare but I have seen it happen.
Disconnects reported by DreamMapper...I am unsure if that is the same thing as a session. Rely on SH's session reporting for that data point.

To turn off short sessions...just click on the session and change it from green to red. Then it will be omitted from the statistics and the graphs. Cleans up the detailed report a bit. Omits big long blank spaces.

[teffers]

Thanks Pugsy for great advice. I'll get on with my homework

It was my first full night with the machine and I felt it didn't go too badly. Hopefully I'll adjust even more as time goes on.

[Pugsy]

My very first night with the machine and mask...I barely slept at all. Not so much because of mask or breathing issues but just because of all the new stuff being stuck on my face. It wasn't uncomfortable but it sure wasn't normal and my brain woke me often during the night just to say "hey dude...do you know there is an alien stuck on your face blowing air up your nose...he's a weird alien"

It will get easier and more normal with time and experience.
It took several weeks for my brain to quit with the "hey dude do you know..." thing and come to terms with its new best friend.

[teffers]

I know what you mean but I've been on CPAP for 10 years, it's just that I've changed sleep clinic and machine so it's new and I know it'll take some adjustment.

I really appreciate the advice, thanks again.