oscar data interpretation

[jack7878]

Hi All,

happy new year.
I need some help with my data, could someone kind enough to let me know if there is anything i can improve on. Thanks.

[Pugsy]

There are times where excessive leaks are a potential issue.

Do the leaks ever wake you up?

[jack7878]

Hi Pugsy,

no the leak don't wake me up. I think i am a mouth breather which cause the leak. IS changing to full face an option to correct the leak?

[Pugsy]

Well technically when mouth breathing leaks are excessive and maybe having a negative impact on therapy then a lot of people will tell you that you just have to get a full face mask but they come with their own challenges as well.
And don't assume that all your big leaks are mouth breathing...they can also be simply mask movement as well.

Unless you just want to go down the full face mask road...I wouldn't go there based on what is seen here. Yes, there are some big leaks but it also looks like you have some nights where the big leaks aren't much at all.
Of the reports above the worst was 25% of the time in large leak and you still would have had Mr Smiley for leak management from ResMed. Mr Frowny doesn't show up until you spend 30% or more of the leak in large leak territory.

I see 2 nights with about 6 1/2 hours of use...and one with a little over 8 hours. How many hours of actual sleep are you averaging?

Do you take any medications of any kind? If so, what?

Any other physical or mental health issues going on that might impact how you feel or sleep????

If those leaks aren't waking you up...I don't know that I would immediately jump on the full face mask bandwagon. Most of the time you aren't deep enough into large leak territory for the machine to not be able to handle excess leak decently anyway.

The night with the higher AHI...over half of the AHI was CA/central apnea and I suspect false positives probably and not real asleep events and even if they were real asleep events we can't really do much about them and you aren't haven't enough of them to really need to do anything about them.
Watch the videos here...especially the last one.
http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

Answer the hours of sleep question I asked and the meds question...maybe something in there might explain not feeling the good numbers as you would expect. It might be that you simply need more hours of sleep on a consistent basis. I know I feel like total crap if I get less than 7 hours of sleep.

[jack7878]

thanks pugsy for the prompt reply. I normally sleep about 6 hours there about and i am not on any medication at the moment. It could be my work is very stressful that i can't sleep longer than 7 hours a day. please see below one large leak night. Any comment on this night?

[Pugsy]

That is a bad leak night for sure but the worst it ever got to was 45 L/min and those periods at that much leak were relatively brief.
The machine actually does a very decent job compensating for leaks up to around 35 L/min...and if it starts to have a problem and events are happening over 35 L/min you might start seeing a lot of UA flags for unknown apnea...means something happened but the machine couldn't figure out what it was for sure. I don't really see but one UA flag. I suspect if you zoomed in on that UA and made your leak graph taller you would probably see you were up around that 40 to 45 L/min leak rate.

Large leak and problems is a progressive problem...the deeper into large leak territory you go...the more chance of it having a negative impact on your therapy...and then we factor in how long were you really deep into large leak territory. So 2 things to weight.

The bulk of your time in large leaks isn't up around 45 L/min though...the bulk of it is probably between 24 L/min and 30 L/min and the machine can easily compensate for it at those levels.

5 minutes at 45 L/min...not the end of the world...now if you spent 2 hours up around 45 L/min then we have a more serious issues but if you did I bet you would see a lot more UAs as well.

Now there is the possibility that these leaks are disturbing your sleep more than you might think they are...causing arousals that you don't remember and that could possibly be a factor in not feeling well rested.

[jack7878]

is there any suggestion you may have for me to improve the therapy in my case?

[Pugsy]

The only thing that might need "improving" is the leak management. Now would having better leak management give you the results you feel or lacking...I don't know the answer to that.
Is there something else going on that might be a factor? Entirely possible.
Hours of sleep is another thing that could possibly be worked on. Maybe you just need more consistent hours of good quality sleep.
Maybe the sleep you are getting isn't optimal and that's something no easily seen here with the data the machine gives us.

You might take a crash course in evaluating flow rate to see if you have evidence of much arousal breathing which would point to maybe crappy sleep but it might not tell you why the crappy sleep.

Not everything can be fixed with a little tweak of the settings. I wish it were that easy.
To fix a problem we first have to identify the cause of the problem and sometimes we just can't easily spot a cause of anything.

Watch the videos here...
http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

The only things that just stand out from these reports...leaks maybe impacting sleep quality and the potential for simply not getting enough hours of sleep and maybe that sleep not being of good quality.

There's nothing obvious standing up screaming "fix me and you will feel better" except what I have mentioned here and those are maybes.

[jack7878]

thank you pugsy. i will work on my leak management and longer sleep hour first.

[palerider]

is there any suggestion you may have for me to improve the therapy in my case?

If it were me, I'd raise the min pressure to 9, the machine keeps trying to get the pressure down to your set min, and then you have some events that cause pressure to jump up, and the cycle repeats.

I'd go for min 9, max 20.

[Miss Emerita]

jack 7878, do you mostly breathe through your nose when you're awake? If no, you might consider a FFM, but if yes, the next question is how your mouth breathing comes about. Do you know whether your jaw drops down? Your lips part?

Also, the beginning of a new year might be a good time to review the guidelines for better sleep.

• Keep a consistent sleep schedule. Get up at the same time every day, even on weekends or during vacations.
• Set a bedtime that is early enough for you to get at least 7 hours of sleep.
• Don’t go to bed unless you are sleepy.
• If you don’t fall asleep after 20 minutes, get out of bed.
• Establish a relaxing bedtime routine.
• Use your bed only for sleep and sex.
• Make your bedroom quiet and relaxing. Keep the room at a comfortable, cool temperature.
• Limit exposure to bright light in the evenings.
• Turn off electronic devices at least 30 minutes before bedtime.
• Don’t eat a large meal before bedtime. If you are hungry at night, eat a light, healthy snack.
• Exercise regularly and maintain a healthy diet.
• Avoid consuming caffeine in the late afternoon or evening.
• Avoid consuming alcohol before bedtime.
• Reduce your fluid intake before bedtime.

[jack7878]

noted palerider, will change the setting to 9 and 20 to see if i can get use to it.
Miss merits, yes i breath with my mouth most of the time when i am awake due to constant blocked nose. I am thinking of ordering a FFM to try it out.