Should mask leak cause increased pressure?

[palerider]

90/95 % numbers of anything just mean you were at OR BELOW that number for 90/95 % of the night.
The or below part of the definition is often overlooked and people tend to think it's where we spent 90/95% of the night and nothing is further from the truth.
90/95% numbers are just numbers that don't really mean much despite everyone wanting them to mean something.
They are easily skewed upwards by a relatively brief excursion higher.

Oh, I assumed it meant I was at 12 90% of the time. Thanks! I need to just go to sleep and stop obsessing over whether my machine is working properly, I think lol. I keep getting concerned over nothing . I was afraid it wasn’t working because I was tired this morning, but that could’ve been because I had to wake up at 7 am for my appointment when I usually get up at 9:15 am for work. I have to get up early tomorrow too ugh .

Here's what the 90% number REALLY means:
http://adventures-in-hosehead-land.blog ... de-to.html
What Pugsy said is right... but that doesn't show just how meaningless it is where your treatment is concerned...

Yeah, worrying about sleep makes sleep worse..

[Sleep2Dream]

So what's the best way to guess minimum pressure setting? I don't want to have to push the ramp button every time I want to restart the machine--I mean, I am half-dead when I get up to go to the bathroom at night, and it's all I can deal with to put the damn mask back on and go back to sleep, trusting on the autostart to work. Which it does. I upped my max pressure just to see what might happen, since my 90% pressure rate has gone up lately, and the results seem to pretty much match whatever I set it to. Minimum is set at 9 or 9.5 (I forget which at the moment), and I don't like to set it higher, because without a ramp, 10 and above feel too intrusive (for lack of a better word)--hard to adjust to. Needless to say, the settings the "provider" originally used haven't been the best, and in my constant quest to stop hating the machine, I've been experimenting...

[palerider]

So what's the best way to guess minimum pressure setting? I don't want to have to push the ramp button every time I want to restart the machine--I mean, I am half-dead when I get up to go to the bathroom at night, and it's all I can deal with to put the damn mask back on and go back to sleep, trusting on the autostart to work. Which it does. I upped my max pressure just to see what might happen, since my 90% pressure rate has gone up lately, and the results seem to pretty much match whatever I set it to. Minimum is set at 9 or 9.5 (I forget which at the moment), and I don't like to set it higher, because without a ramp, 10 and above feel too intrusive (for lack of a better word)--hard to adjust to.

Minimum pressure needs to be set high enough to prevent the majority of events outright, and then let the auto function handle exceptions, such as REM sleep, or rolling onto your back.

Setting it lower, such as you want to do, will result in poorer sleep, more events, more having to get up and pee because your apnea isn't controlled well.

The 90% pressure is meaningless, other than a 'oh, huh' statistic.

[Gryphon]

So what's the best way to guess minimum pressure setting? I don't want to have to push the ramp button every time I want to restart the machine--I mean, I am half-dead when I get up to go to the bathroom at night, and it's all I can deal with to put the damn mask back on and go back to sleep, trusting on the autostart to work. Which it does. I upped my max pressure just to see what might happen, since my 90% pressure rate has gone up lately, and the results seem to pretty much match whatever I set it to. Minimum is set at 9 or 9.5 (I forget which at the moment), and I don't like to set it higher, because without a ramp, 10 and above feel too intrusive (for lack of a better word)--hard to adjust to.

Minimum pressure needs to be set high enough to prevent the majority of events outright, and then let the auto function handle exceptions, such as REM sleep, or rolling onto your back.

Setting it lower, such as you want to do, will result in poorer sleep, more events, more having to get up and pee because your apnea isn't controlled well.

The 90% pressure is meaningless, other than a 'oh, huh' statistic.

Also - with some people - just having the pressures change a lot can cause disturbed sleep. I've heard of issues were some people can be more sensitive to the changes in pressure from the machine and it will "wake you up a bit" so you want to dial in your lower pressure as close as you can so you prevent most of the problems you might have. If you have your machine dialed in nicely you'll spend more time at a constant pressure and have less chances for arbitrary changes in pressure from your machine to disturb your sleep unless you really need it. If your lower pressure is set unusually low the machine will keep diving back down to that number because it's set that way and then it will change again and go back up when it detects flow limitations or snoring etc...

I think it's one of the reasons you see a lot of people fail with CPAP because, doctors who don't take the time to review anything send people home with APAP machines set at 4-20 and figure the machine will work it's magic, a lot of them have no clue how any of the equipment they're prescribing even works. It's in your best interest to study and learn as much as you can so you can be your own advocate and make changes as needed.

Rest well,

Gryphon

[palerider]

Also - with some people - just having the pressures change a lot can cause disturbed sleep. I've heard of issues were some people can be more sensitive to the changes in pressure from the machine and it will "wake you up a bit" so you want to dial in your lower pressure as close as you can so you prevent most of the problems you might have.

My theory, which I think makes more sense, is that the breathing events are what wake people up, not the pressure, and then when they wake up, they see that the pressure is up, (because of the breathing events) and then they blame the pressure for it.

But, if they hadn't had their sleep disturbed by the breathing events that caused the pressure to go up.... they'd have slept on through.

Hard to tell. But that's my theory, till I see better data.

In any event, higher min pressure alleviates it either way.

[Dog Slobber]

More support that the 90/95% numbers are arbitrary. Sometimes Sleepyhead (Mark) uses the 90% numbers other times the 95%.

In the statistics section on the Daily tab, he uses the 95% numbers. But on the Statistics tab he uses 90% numbers.

At least in SH v1.1.0 he uses only 95%.

[palerider]

More support that the 90/95% numbers are arbitrary. Sometimes Sleepyhead (Mark) uses the 90% numbers other times the 95%.

In the statistics section on the Daily tab, he uses the 95% numbers. But on the Statistics tab he uses 90% numbers.

At least in SH v1.1.0 he uses only 95%.

That's because the Mark is kinda willy nilly between Resmed and Respironics defaults. (one does 90%, one does 95%). When I was working with him on SH, I got him to more intelligently set *some* things... but certainly not all... because going back and *fixing* user interface issues that caused confusion wasn't nearly as fun as coding up some new flashy thing. :sigh:

"Look, you KNOW what kind of machine the data is coming from, don't use the parameters for Respironics when you've got Resmed data, (and vice versa). .... still have the Resmed 24lpm redline for Respironics data though... which is a neverending source of confusion for people. and other things.

[Sleep2Dream]

So what's the best way to guess minimum pressure setting? I don't want to have to push the ramp button every time I want to restart the machine--I mean, I am half-dead when I get up to go to the bathroom at night, and it's all I can deal with to put the damn mask back on and go back to sleep, trusting on the autostart to work. Which it does. I upped my max pressure just to see what might happen, since my 90% pressure rate has gone up lately, and the results seem to pretty much match whatever I set it to. Minimum is set at 9 or 9.5 (I forget which at the moment), and I don't like to set it higher, because without a ramp, 10 and above feel too intrusive (for lack of a better word)--hard to adjust to.

Minimum pressure needs to be set high enough to prevent the majority of events outright, and then let the auto function handle exceptions, such as REM sleep, or rolling onto your back.

Setting it lower, such as you want to do, will result in poorer sleep, more events, more having to get up and pee because your apnea isn't controlled well.

The 90% pressure is meaningless, other than a 'oh, huh' statistic.

I think should give it a shot with minimum set to 10 and see what happens. I have been reading posts and blogs and articles, but I end up feeling like I'm going in circles. And maybe I should put it all back to what seemed to be working: minimum at 8, max at 10, I think it was (I'd have to look it up now). With those settings, while my AHI was rarely below 1.5, it never went above 4, so maybe that's good enough?

[ChicagoGranny]

I mean, I am half-dead when I get up to go to the bathroom at night, and it's all I can deal with to put the damn mask back on and go back to sleep, trusting on the autostart to work. Which it does.

Don't take the mask off!! Disconnect the hose. Leave the mask on.

I do it a little differently from many. I use a quick disconnect between the hose and the machine. When getting up in the middle of the night, I pull the hose loose at the machine. Then, I wrap the hose around my neck. It's easy to get going again - just unwrap the hose from my neck and attach it to the machine. Autostart takes care of the rest.

[serabeth]

So maybe something is wrong with my machine...I just had another night with the heavy leaking and pressure increases when it leaked. I did not have any congestion tonight and it happened even while I was fully awake and watching it, so it was not responding to snoring or apneas...

[Pugsy]

Can I see last night's report please?

Awake breathing is very irregular when compared to asleep breathing....but unfortunately the machine can't tell if you are awake or not...it only measures air flow.

Those awake breathing irregularities can and will cause the machine to be confused and do all sorts of stuff it maybe wouldn't be doing if you were asleep and breathing nice and regularly.

The machine is easily confused by awake breathing....If all your problems happened while awake...it's your own breathing confusing the machine that is the problem.

[serabeth]

Can I see last night's report please?

Awake breathing is very irregular when compared to asleep breathing....but unfortunately the machine can't tell if you are awake or not...it only measures air flow.

Those awake breathing irregularities can and will cause the machine to be confused and do all sorts of stuff it maybe wouldn't be doing if you were asleep and breathing nice and regularly.

The machine is easily confused by awake breathing....If all your problems happened while awake...it's your own breathing confusing the machine that is the problem.

I’ll have to go through the post for sleepyhead and figure it out when I get home tonight. I have a massive headache today but I think it’s from tightening the mask to a vice grip on my face in an attempt to get a seal. And I cannot stand this mask pushing into the space between my eyebrows; I can’t wait till my new mask gets here. I hope it helps!

[palerider]

. And maybe I should put it all back to what seemed to be working: minimum at 8, max at 10,

For most people, that's a dumb setting. "max at 10" just promises that the machine can't do anything to prevent events.

[palerider]

So maybe something is wrong with my machine...I just had another night with the heavy leaking and pressure increases when it leaked.

You've got it *backwards*. Pressure *never*, *ever* increases in response to leaks.

Leaks increase in response to pressure.

[serabeth]

So maybe something is wrong with my machine...I just had another night with the heavy leaking and pressure increases when it leaked.

You've got it *backwards*. Pressure *never*, *ever* increases in response to leaks.

Leaks increase in response to pressure.

Yeah it’s not supposed to but unless I was somehow breathing weird while fully awake, I don’t know why it kept increasing. I was not doing anything weird like holding my breath or breathing unnaturally heavy/shallow or fast/slow. It was leaking before the pressure increased out of the front. I made sure everything was connected properly and it all seemed to be so I don’t know why it did that. Then as pressure increased, it started coming out both the top and bottom as well.