Bad mask fit

[AccessShell]

Is the smart start option the same as auto on / auto off. I don't have to push a button to turn it on. It senses my breathing. I thought that auto on goes with auto off, thereby automatically shutting off. I guess putting under the pillow is not the same as just putting the mask & hose on the floor in the morning.

[Pugsy]

If you are already using SmartStart which is indeed an auto on and auto off feature and the machine continues to blow air under the bed pillow it is possible that there is enough resistance with the mask crammed under the bed pillow that the machine doesn't know that you are no longer attached and this will definitely screw up the leak numbers.
Normally when a person isn't attached and the machine doesn't auto off the machine will report a lot of BND time...breathing not detected and that time would be subtracted from usage time along with any leak numbers.

Auto on and auto off work on resistance to air flow and that's what triggers whichever...either the auto on and auto off thing.
Auto off should turn the machine off in about 10 seconds or so when you remove yourself from the mask because the machine will no longer sense the expected resistance. It's a long 10 seconds in the middle of the night and the spouse is in danger of being woke up by the noise. In that case I would just push the button and turn it off.
Count your blessings ..Respironics machines with auto off take a full 60 seconds to turn itself off when the human is no longer attached.

Try it tonight and see what you get for leak report tomorrow morning.

[AccessShell]

Yes, I will. Thanks Pugsy

[ozij]

Auto off should turn the machine off in about 10 seconds or so when you remove yourself from the mask because the machine will no longer sense the expected resistance

Sometimes Auto Off simply doesn't work when you're using nasal pillows. Better turn the machine off manually when you're not using it. That way, when using the OSCAR software you have a clear record of how many times you stopped therapy.

When I return (3-5 minutes), the feel a very low level air flow from the nasal pillow.

If it's a indeed a very low level flow, then the machine did turn off automatically, and that low level flow is a normal Resmed feature, which occurs no matter how the machine gets turned off. It helps the water in the humidifier cool, clears out residual humidity from mask, hose, and humdifier and goes on for about 20 or 30 minutes (I don't remember which). When I disconnect the humidifier after the air stops blowing, its sides are nice and dry (and clear). On the other hand, if I leave the humidifier in the machine after the gentle blowing has stopped, there's condensation on the inner sides.

I get up several times a night (0 to 4), for my walk to the Throne room.

Untreated sleep apnea can heighten the need to go to the Throne room. 4 times a night is too much and probably means your sleep is sub-optimal.
Yes, there are other reasons for having to get up, but, given your high leak rate, I'd say it's quit reasonable to assume the leaks are affecting your sleep.

All the more reason to do what Pugsy says:

We just don't know if a nice low AHI is low because nothing happened or if the machine was clueless in the face of a really big prolonged leak and we need to look at the actual software data in detail to know for sure.

[Pugsy]

Sometimes Auto Off simply doesn't work when you're using nasal pillows.

Thanks for reminding me of that little tidbit. None of my machines in a long time have had the auto off part of SmartStart work at my pressures with the P10 ...but I have been using the Bleep most of the time and I just forgot.
I never have that problem with the Bleep.
I make use of the auto on part of the SmartStart but years of conditioning from using the P10 and auto off not working has conditioned me to just reach over and push the off button most of the time even when using the Bleep.
Habit...old habit and hard to break.

Given the mixed history here and "did the machine reduce blowing while under the bed pillow" question.
I really think that a good look at the leak graph itself is the best thing to be doing....just to make sure before I go telling someone to ignore the leak alert from the machine.

[AccessShell]

No joy. This morning I got NOK. The AHI was higher than I normally get , but still very low. It reas 1.6.

I did notice something. I got up three times last night for my walks. All three times I put the mask & hose on the floor, not covered. I noticed that on the first 2 times, by the I was able to get out of bed the machine had stopped. On the last time, when I returned, same amount of time as usual, I felt a small breeze coming from the nasal pillows.

Tonight I will try to actually push the stop button.

[AccessShell]

How do I look at the leak graph?

There are other reasons why I take walks at night, not related to sleep apnea. But, they may play off each other.

[Pugsy]

I felt a small breeze coming from the nasal pillows.

This small breeze is just the normal cool down period where the machine blows a very low pressure air through the hose and mask to dry out the hose and mask.
This happens anytime we turn a ResMed machine off manually or it shuts itself off because we have removed the mask and auto off part of SmartStart has turned the bigger pressure blowing off.
My guess is that you just didn't notice it the first 2 times you got up.

It goes from therapy air pressure to the gentle breeze and does the gentle breeze for about 30 minutes and then it stops totally. This blowing time counts in the overall run hour time of the machine totals but does NOT count in therapy usage time.

It doesn't sound like we can blame the non OK for leak management stand point on the machine blowing full force air for a prolonged period of time when you aren't attached.
We need to see the leak graphs themselves to see for sure what the leaks are doing.

[Pugsy]

How do I look at the leak graph?

OSCAR software.

Do you have a SD card in your machine? That's the first thing we need and must have.

OSCAR https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... stallation
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... rpretation
http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph ... ganization organize and how to do screen shots.
wiki/index.php/Oscar:organize Wiki

http://www.cpaptalk.com/viewtopic/t1585 ... eview.html

[AccessShell]

I have a smart card. How would that help. I have no software on my computer to read it. Also, would that trigger, whoever watches, that the card was removed?

[Pugsy]

would that trigger, whoever watches, that the card was removed?

No. Can't/won't happen.

I have a smart card.

Let's make sure we are talking about the same thing here because the S9 machine doesn't use a smart card.
The S9 uses a SD card which is about the size of a postage stamp.
This is what it looks like.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/sd-car ... -2gb-fat16

This is what a smart card looks like. If you have this in your machine then you aren't using a S9 model machine...you are using a S8 model machine and we have to have a totally different discussion about how to get the data off your machine.
https://www.cpap.com/productpage/resmed-s8-smart-card

[AccessShell]

It is an SD card!

[Pugsy]

SD card thank goodness. For sure a S9 machine.

Check the links above that I gave you for OSCAR software. The first on is the actual software download page.
The rest of the links are educational how to install and use and what you might see pages.

[AccessShell]

I have the software installed. Glad you suggest I read it all. I would not have known to lock the SD card to prevent over writing.
I set the oldest date to read to be 6/1/22. I will try to load the data at about 1:00 PM my time.

[Iamstumped]

I have the software installed. Glad you suggest I read it all. I would not have known to lock the SD card to prevent over writing.
I set the oldest date to read to be 6/1/22. I will try to load the data at about 1:00 PM my time.

You can lock it while importing your data into OSCAR, just be sure to unlock the SD Card before you reinsert it into your CPAP machine.
The CPAP can not write data onto the card if it is still locked.