Feeling obsessive about sleep

[johnmtaylor]

Does anyone else feel like their becoming obsessive about sleep data. When does it start to fade into the background?

[Pugsy]

When does it start to fade into the background?

When it gets boring and/or you tire of it. Seeing the same thing day after day after day and you feel the same day after day after day.
In 2010..I look at my data once during the whole year and that was when I changed masks and more out of curiosity than anything else.

To help relieve the boredom I do small experiments just to see if I can spot something that is unique or unusual related to a minor change. So I try something new just to see if anything happens...one way or the other to add spice.

Some people are just geared to wanting to put everything under the microscope every day and some aren't.
After a while one comes to realize that is is normal for things to change on the reports and that we all have a "normal range" that we will see happen every now and then.
Some people like and/or need the reassurance that the numbers provide. Some don't.
For me it took about 6 months of seeing nothing exciting going on before I got bored with it.

[johnmtaylor]

Sounds a lot like checking your weight every day. I think I may fall back to once a week to monitor improvement.
Thanks for the help

[Sheriff Buford]

I'm like Pugs... it gets old. I do record my total hours of sleep, AHI, centrals, apnea events, leak rates and 95 percentile - when on autopap and bathroom trips on a daily basis. If I get bored, I'll download my data card to entertain me... but what the heck?....

Sheriff

[chunkyfrog]

Short of time, I jot down the numbers from my sleep report screen, Zeo number and my blood sugar--and call it done.
This notebook is getting close to the end (nearly 3 years of data), I need to find or make another.

[sleepstar]

Sounds a lot like checking your weight every day. I think I may fall back to once a week to monitor improvement.
Thanks for the help

You know what, I'd recommend checking even less.
Honestly, your mask should be something you put on at the end of the night, and wake up in the morning feeling great.
If problems arise, then you tackle the data. Or if you want to check once a month - sure.

Good luck

[Pugsy]

One thing I did make an effort to do when I was new to all this and wanted to see the boring stuff every day...I didn't check the previous night's data until the evening. I didn't want to "jinx" my day. You know see some ugly data and then go on to feel like crap all day...creating a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts.

One day about 4 months in to therapy I woke up feeling amazing (one of my few "miracles") and just felt great all day.
Got all sorts of chores done and errands run.. I just KNEW I mush have had a night with AHI 0.0
Boy was I ever wrong...AHI 10.2..yep double digit AHI. I should have felt like crap by the looks of the numbers but I felt great.
In fact a lot better than nights with AHI in the 1 to 2 range. Makes no sense but it happened.

If I could do that every day and feel great...I could care less what the paper report showed.
Right now I am experimenting with fixed bilevel pressures.. Some of the nights have been really ugly on paper. I don't really feel the bad numbers themselves. Now if I have a bad night from pain or something unrelated to sleep apnea...I don't need a report to tell me I had a bad night. I already know it because I probably remember waking up a gazillion times during the night...dogs, pain, thunderstorms, bad dream or whatever.

I do tend to be a data junkie...but seeing the same stuff over and over again gets old real fast. I think that is why I like to experiment. Whether it is with a new mask or a minor setting change. I treat it as a learning experience.

I feel I slept really well last night. I was totally exhausted when I went to bed..spent 4 hours on the lawn mower yesterday bouncing around...my back was definitely telling me that I abused it by bedtime last night. I feel decent now that my morning stiffness and pain has abated. Today will be a good day. I haven't looked at last night's report yet. I suspect it won't be the greatest on paper but it doesn't matter. I know it will still show something within what is my "normal range" of expected variances. I don't know if I remember more than one awakening last night...I was really tired and I took a half of a hydrocodone (5 mg/apap) pill to give myself a little extra pain control last night.
So sleep quality was better than usual (less awakenings from pain)...will it show up on paper? I don't know and I will go look here in a bit just out of curiosity. I have waited till I was awake and morning pain has abated though...just in case I would tend to create a self fulfilling prophecy. I have never been a morning person...never have...never will. The machine no matter how good it works can't pull off that miracle.

[imfletch]

John,
I know what you mean.
I've only been with my machine for about two months and I still get up every morning, grab the SD card and excitedly head to the computer hoping to find some great revelation!
I'm sure it will get old...just hasn't happened, yet.

[kteague]

One thing I did make an effort to do when I was new to all this and wanted to see the boring stuff every day...I didn't check the previous night's data until the evening. I didn't want to "jinx" my day. You know see some ugly data and then go on to feel like crap all day...creating a self fulfilling prophecy of sorts.

When I was new here someone gave me that advice and I wholeheartedly agree with it. I was more eager to search the journal of those after-the-fact comparisons for a pattern than the data that had normalized.

I think it would be a shame if after stabilizing and regaining a bit of well-being, for the renewed energy to not be used in living life. I am inspired by those who report back all they are now doing that they once had given up.

[John from Brookston]

I check daily, but I'm still dialing this rig in and need the feedback.
I suppose when I get to the place where line after line of breathing graphs look like a clock ticking that I'll find a new hobby.

BTW, logged an AHI of 0.0 last night.

[Pugsy]

Okay, I now looked at last night's data.
Main thing that stood out.. 2 clusters of OAs...with one being a significant looking cluster right about the time frame where the very first REM stage sleep would occur...had 9 OAs within a 3 minute period. None appeared to be horribly long in duration..mostly apeared to be around 10 to 12 second duration...very brief. Not the end of the world. I don't normally wear a recording pulse ox. Just not worth the hassle to know if I had any desats during that time frame...for 3 minutes..if I did desat it wouldn't have been very much. Not enough time and might not even register much.
The 2nd cluster earlier in the night was only 3 events and only 2 close together.

Overall AHI was 2.71...with CAs being only 0.25... 8 hours of sleep.
Over the total night..only 14 OAs with 9 of them being in that one cluster during a 3 minute time span.

This doesn't surprise me. I am using fixed bilevel pressures right now and I know from past history that sometimes I need a little more pressure during REM sleep. With the fixed pressures my machine can't try to do a better job preventing those OAs.
I know I I had other periods of REM sleep with zero events at all. I slept good so I know I likely got more REM sleep as the night went on.
So I didn't see anything that I didn't expect last night. When in auto adjusting pressure mode...I rarely see a cluster of anything. In fixed mode..yeah sometimes but overall small clusters aren't frequent when I have EPAP pressure set optimally.
It took me all of maybe 30 seconds to evaluate and shrug my shoulders and move on. Not nearly as "exciting" as a couple of nights ago with the coyote ugly report (AHI 8.33 and the bulk of it OAs) and not as boring as other nights... End result..I felt pretty much the same with the coyote ugly report as I did with last night's report or the really boring AHI less than 1 reports.

[Wulfman...]

Does anyone else feel like their becoming obsessive about sleep data. When does it start to fade into the background?

What's "wrong" with that? What do you consider "obsessive"?
I've been downloading my data daily (with exceptions for when I'm occasionally traveling and then collect it on multiple data cards) for eight years. I don't look at it as being "obsessive"........just, covering my ass in case I might be involved in a traffic accident and need to PROVE that I'm compliant with my therapy and that it has been effective.

There have been numerous instances reported in the media over the years where someone was killed or severely injured in an accident by a driver who fell asleep at the wheel......and had been diagnosed with Sleep Apnea and was non-compliant with their therapy. Do you want to be called to a witness stand and not be able to verify that your therapy is effective?
Some of these people who "poo-poo" the importance of their sleep data or think it's "macho" to not have the proof are living dangerously.


Den

.

[kteague]

The term obssessive is open to interpretation. For me, in general, anything I'm intensely interested in I may get to the point I have to ask myself if it adds to my life or takes away from it. What works for one may be too much or not enough for another. I guess our "obssession" will be in proportion to perceived value, so there's a wide spectrum of normal before obssession even comes into play.

[caffeinatedcfo]

Now that I'm sleeping better I don't jump to download my SD card data - I just grab the quick display report on my S9. I'll probably grab it weekly just for backup.

[Sheriff Buford]

Okay, I now looked at last night's data.

I knew you'd jump on that memory card and download it quicker than a "monkey on a cupcake"...

Sheriff