Humidifier/water usage; help me understand "events"

[cpap450]

I am in my first week of CPAP use, and surprised at how happy I am, as I was 100% happy with my sleep prior to CPAP, and assumed it would cramp my style. It hasn't.

Here are two basic questions I have, one about my water tank/humidifier, and the other about "events."

The pattern I've had so far with my water tank is that one morning, the thing will have the same water level it had the night before. Then the next morning it will be empty. It doesn't seem like rocket science to fill and snap the tank in, so I can't imagine I'm doing it wrong (and imagine that if I were, there'd be a warning from the machine). My mask time has been 6-8 hours of use each night. And again, the pattern seems to be 0% water usage, 100%, 0%, etc., on successive nights. Can someone offer thoughts and insight?

And as far as "events:"

1. What are they?
2. How are they detected?
3. Does opening my mouth record as an event?
4. My events/hour have been between 3.8 and 4.2, but have increased over time, no night-to-night decrease - should I be concerned?
5. One night I took my mask off to use the bathroom and had 3.0 events/hour. This was after six hours. Two hours later, the number had climbed to 4.1. How could such a jump happen; I'd think that the lower number for six hours would be hard to drag up in just two hours.
6. Is there a time of night when I'd be most susceptible to events? The above suggests that events increase in the later hours of sleep.
7. Many of my longer-tenured friends on CPAP average 0-1 event per hour. Does this come about over time? Is there something I as a user can do to make a drop to this level more likely? For what it's worth, the settings on my machine - pressure and humidity - are both on "auto," and I'd really rather keep them there, than have to master the intricacies of fine-tuning.

[LSAT]

Being new to CPAP and to this board, I suggest you start with the first Announcement
at the top of the page...
viewtopic/t172378/Sticky--Newbies-PLEAS ... STING.html

[Julie]

Couple of things... events are apneas (or hypopneas), of different types, but most often obstructive.

The humidifier uses water according to the setting you enter, but also 'as needed' according to local ambient levels... i.e. if it's raining out, or you live close to water, you're less likely to need it a lot of the time, or as much, if any at all. On drier days, or those when central heating is on and there's not much humidity in the air, you'll use more. If that makes sense - depending on your local climate or individual night's 'home' atmosphere - then that's your answer, but if not, it's possible something else was up, either no setting entered properly, the tank wasn't hooked up as well as you thought, etc. etc.

DO read the Announcements too, of course, the above is only bare bones.

Last thing... you may have many other questions of course, and it's best to stick to this thread so people can follow what's what, rather than having to hunt all over to get history of others... thanks.

[Pugsy]

Welcome to the forum.

Exactly which machine model are you using....what does it say on the front lower right of your machine?

What are all your settings? Unsure how to get to all of the settings? See the manual here.
https://www.respshop.com/manuals/ResMed ... %20her.pdf

[Dog Slobber]

A common reason many run out of water, especially those who are new and haven't established a routine is, they simply forget to fill the tank.

[D.H.]

A consistent pattern of 0%, 100% 0%, etc seems very unusual.

If it happened once, I would say that you forgot to fill it.

The only thing that I can possibly think of is that when you fill it, you somehow do something incorrect, but on the following night (when you don't do anything), you do something that enables it to work.

BTW, I don't recommend leaving water in the tank during the daytime.

[Pugsy]

Water consumption can and will vary from night to night.
Things that affect water consumption.
1. Ambient humidity in the bedroom/house
2. Humidity setting on the machine
3. Pressures used
4. Amount of large leak that might have happened during the night.

[Miss Emerita]

It's great to hear you're adjusting so quickly to treatment. You are doing your long-term health a big favor!

To answer one of your questions: if you open your mouth while you're using your machine, that will cause a leak, not an apnea or hypopnea event. Big leaks, especially if they go on for a long time, can keep the machine from doing its job. Do you know how long your mouth stays open?

[chunkyfrog]

. . . Do you know how long your mouth stays open?

Most of us don't--because we are asleep; but if your mouth feels very dry, that is the likely reason.
Most mornings, I just need a drink of water, but if my lips stick to my teeth, then it was bad.

[Geer1]

-Events are apnea/hypopnea. They are detected by the CPAP machine using proprietary methods of analyzing the flow and pressure data recorded on the machine.
-Opening your mouth doesn't record as an event unless the leak/change in flow rate tricks the CPAP machine into thinking an event occurred. Similarly breathing when awake can be flagged as events.
-Your events/hr will fluctuate.
-Some people have more events during REM sleep which primarily occurs in the later hours of sleep. Shutting the machine off to go to the washroom resets the pressure to minimum as well which could be another reason. The only way to get a better idea of actual cause is to review your data.
-Having a machine on auto with a wide range can lead to inadequate sleep. APAP adjusts after breathing issues have occurred, if your minimum pressure is too low then you will have breathing issues while this pressure is increasing to the ideal range. If your apnea is significantly worse in rem sleep then this will happen each time you enter rem as the pressure increases and then decreases after the rem cycle is complete. As mentioned if you shut off the machine then it starts back at minimum pressure. Auto functionality is good but you still need to find the ideal pressure range for you, your sleep therapist/doctor should be helping determine the minimum and maximum settings but I would learn what you can so you can make recommendations if you believe the pressures should be adjusted.

The Newbies post linked to, specifically items 3&4 will help you download OSCAR so you can review your data(assuming your machine is compatible), this will give you the information you need to see how well your pressure settings are working for you. Of course feel free to post images if you would like help interpreting the data.

[palerider]

The pattern I've had so far with my water tank is that one morning, the thing will have the same water level it had the night before. Then the next morning it will be empty. It doesn't seem like rocket science to fill and snap the tank in, so I can't imagine I'm doing it wrong

The ambient humidity in the room affects the amount of water usage.

(and imagine that if I were, there'd be a warning from the machine).

Only in that there would be a huge amount of air noise if you didn't get it back in right.

And as far as "events:"

1. What are they?
2. How are they detected?
3. Does opening my mouth record as an event?
4. My events/hour have been between 3.8 and 4.2, but have increased over time, no night-to-night decrease - should I be concerned?
5. One night I took my mask off to use the bathroom and had 3.0 events/hour. This was after six hours. Two hours later, the number had climbed to 4.1. How could such a jump happen; I'd think that the lower number for six hours would be hard to drag up in just two hours.
6. Is there a time of night when I'd be most susceptible to events? The above suggests that events increase in the later hours of sleep.
7. Many of my longer-tenured friends on CPAP average 0-1 event per hour. Does this come about over time? Is there something I as a user can do to make a drop to this level more likely? For what it's worth, the settings on my machine - pressure and humidity - are both on "auto," and I'd really rather keep them there, than have to master the intricacies of fine-tuning.

1. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-gie2dhqP2c
2. By monitoring the airflow.
3. no
4. yes
5. because sleep varies. Pay attention to the nightly average, turn off the ahi chart.
6. many people have more disturbed sleep breathing during REM, it's normal to have more REM towards the end of the night.
7. With proper adjustment of your pressures, it can usually be attained.

[cpap450]

There have been a lot of comments posted, and I appreciate that. Rather than responding to each one, just offering some additional information:

1. I live in the northeast US, and my house has air conditioning and integrated humidification with heat. It's currently 40 F outside, and 35% rh indoors
2. The bottom right of my unit says Autoset; this is a common model I believe, but it's not listed by exact title in the choices in my profile
3. I of course have my water tank filled each night.
4. I did install the OSCAR software on my computer, but have not bothered to trek over to the unit to grab the SD card. I am not sure at this point that a detailed analysis of my sleep data is needed - my questions are more general.
5. My mouth is not knowingly open for long. The two reasons I open it are (1) to talk to my wife - quick question/answer, not long conversation; (2) the machine is so quiet I sometimes open my mouth to receive the sensation from the machine, reinforcing that yes, it's on!
6. Neither my mouth nor nose feel dry in the morning. If anything, they've felt MUCH better than I'm used to. That said (TMI alert here), each morning, I have noticed some of the largest - sorry - boogers in my nose I've ever encountered! Is this a common side effect?
7. I was asked for my machine's settings. When I play with the SD card I guess it's there. But they're all default/auto settings for now

Also, one response said that I "should be" concerned about my events/hour increasing from 3.8 to 4.2. Could more elaboration be provided on that - why should I be concerned, and about what? Bear in mind, I am still in my first week of use.

[Pugsy]

I asked about the model because your original choice for equipment was a model that couldn't give us a detail in the data provided that was really needed. I am glad to see you have the AutoSet and it is a full data machine.

I won't worry about the AHI until I know what kind of events you are having...and that's where OSCAR comes in.

As for water consumption...if the left everything at all the default settings including humidification..need to know if you are using a heated hose or not and then evaluate the pressure that the machine is going to along with what the leaks might be doing because both would/could affect water consumption.
If your house is around 35% RH then the water chamber shouldn't be totally dry in the morning if you are using the default settings unless something extra is going on to cause the increased water consumption. The default humidity settings simply aren't that high to account for using up all that water.

[LSAT]

Machine settings show on your screen when you turn on the machine

[harrywr2]

I am new to this as well.

In my first few days my events went up. As my Dr explained, Apneas can happen when various muscles in the throat relax too much. The first night with the machine there was no relaxing for me. As I got used to the machine my numbers got worse. I then turned off autoramp and started making small changes with minimum pressure and my events got better. Everyones "optimum settings' will be different.