Cheyne Stokes respiration - first time seeing it

[Pugsy]

Doesn't look like true CSR to me. If you compare yours to the one I took from the ResMed manual you can see that yours doesn't have the really pronounced waxing and waning and doesn't really ever have a flat line signifying no breathing and yours doesn't have any events getting flagged either.
The 3rd breath has the little weird looking blip right before the 22:40:00 mark and that looks like a gulp of air to me.
This might be awake/semi awake breathing...that gulp makes me think at least semi awake.
I know you were a bit concerned about the CSR because when we read about it ...sure is scary stuff but this doesn't look anything like true CSR to me anyway.
If it really bugs you though or you start seeing this stuff a lot more...contact your doctor to get his final input.

Looks more like this stuff I used to see every now and then...image below.
This is nothing more that ordinary periodic breathing which doesn't mean much especially if it is a random rare occurrence.
CSR is a form of Periodic Breathing but it isn't the only form of periodic breathing out there.

[sleepychar]

Thanks for all your help today, Pugsy. That puts my mind at ease. I'll wait and watch and see if it happens again, etc. I don't want to add it to my "big worry" list at this point. It was just concerning enough to mention it though.

[OkyDoky]

I agree with Pugsy. There are no CA's or actual stopping of respiration which is characteristic of Cheyne-Stokes. I think for now you can put this in the back of your mind as something temporary. Just keep monitoring and if they increase or you start to have CA's or you have any increasing cardiac symptoms discuss them with your doctor.

[sleepychar]

Thank you, Pugsy and Oky Doky for taking the time to look at my chart.

[palerider]

Pugsy, I am trying to post SleepyHead chart but after I put SleepyHead into full screen mode,

don't put it in full screen, just drag the window to the full size of the screen, *OR* use the f12 take screenshot button.

[sleepychar]

don't put it in full screen, just drag the window to the full size of the screen, *OR* use the f12 take screenshot button.

I'm NEVER, NEVER going to put it in full screen mode ever again!!! Problem finally resolved, though, after a VERY long day... the history is all listed in a separate very long string about SleepyHead frozen after full screen mode...

[Jay Aitchsee]

Char, I believe what you are seeing is the result of mouth exhalation. Compare your results, at the bottom, with these, specifically from "23:44:50 to 23:45:20 Exhalation by Mouth: Nose in, mouth out, scoring a leak of about 8L/min"
Notice in addition to the bottom of your waves appearing clipped, your leak line also increases.
Since your profile indicates a FFM, is it possible your chin is dropping out? Your results appear to be classic mouth exhalation with a nasal mask.

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=112758&p=1085906#p1085906
Flow wave examples of mouth breathing wearing a nasal mask:
23:43:30 to 23:44:00 Normal Breathing; Nose In, Nose out.
23:44:00 to 23:44:44 Total Mouth Breathing; Mouth in, Mouth out. 44 second apnea scored at resumption of nasal breathing, no leaks scored.
23:44:50 to 23:45:20 Exhalation by Mouth: Nose in, mouth out, scoring a leak of about 8L/min

Note: With a nasal mask, Flow is only that which passes through the hose connected to the nose. The machine can not directly measure any flow through the mouth. The machine determines leak by measuring the outflow compared to the inflow. If outflow is greater than inflow, ignoring mask vent rate, there is a leak. When exhaling through the mouth, some outflow is lost (to the hose) and the machine scores a leak. When inhaling through the mouth, inflow from the machine is reduced or stopped and the machine registers an apnea.

Here (I hope) is screenshot of Cheyne Stokes from SleepyHead:

[sleepychar]

Char, I believe what you are seeing is the result of mouth exhalation. Compare your results, at the bottom, with these, specifically from "23:44:50 to 23:45:20 Exhalation by Mouth: Nose in, mouth out, scoring a leak of about 8L/min"
Notice in addition to the bottom of your waves appearing clipped, your leak line also increases.
Since your profile indicates a FFM, is it possible your chin is dropping out? Your results appear to be classic mouth exhalation with a nasal mask.

That is entirely possible. I don't think that my chin completely slipped out of the mask because I didn't do anything to adjust the mask back in place. I felt like I had a pretty good night's sleep. In fact, it was a rare night when I slept for about 7 and a half hours without waking up once! That is happening occasionally now, although not very often. But I am mostly only waking up one time during the night these days. You may not recall but you helped me through my early CPAP days last summer when I was still waking up every hour or so and worrying about it. I started noticing real improvement in my sleep and in how I am feeling around the beginning of the 4th month. Anyway, back to the current issue, although I don't think my chin fell completely out of the mask, I have noticed that if I am awake and I have the mask on and I yawn, that causes a leak around the bottom portion of the mask. So it may well have been that there was some mouth exhalation. I haven't had that enough to notice since switching from the pillow to the full face mask but that was the reason I switched from the pillow. There was so much mouth exhalation with the pillow mask that my mouth was very dry. I hardly ever wake up with a dry mouth anymore but it wouldn't surprise me to find out that the mouth exhalation is still occurring from time to time. Thank you for taking a look and giving me some feedback about it.

[Jay Aitchsee]

Yes, I do remember. Glad to hear you are doing so much better.
You are probably still breathing (exhaling) through your mouth to some degree, but with a FFM it won't affect the quality of your therapy. A FFM will tend to reduce the volume of mouth exhalation so that it will also tend to reduce the dry mouth you experienced with a nasal mask. However, people who breathe in and out or continually breathe out are apt to experience dry mouth, even with a FFM.
The mouth exhalation waveform with a FFM mask will look similar but not as pronounced as with a nasal mask. I think you probably nailed it. You are exhaling some (not enough to cause dry mouth) through your mouth and your chin is dropping, at times enough to cause some leakage, but not completely out of the mask since your leaks are low, only about 5L/min, but consistent, during these periods. Probably while you are on your back in deep sleep.
So, as long as your sleep does not seem to be disturbed by these events, I don't think you need be concerned. Treat them as an interesting anomaly and maybe an indication that you are getting some real good deep sleep.