Please help interpret Sleepyhead results

[zonker]

Pale rider, curious about your comment on my terrible leak rate. And I noticed you are using pillows as well. Do your pillows seal very well, have you had issues, etc?

I had been using 7 or 8 different full face masks per my Dr’s recommendation due to my high pressure and they all leaked and frequently woke me up. The pillows worked and were comfortable right away but I needed the chin strap because I’m a mouth breather.

as an alternative to that chine strap, you may want to try-

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=112758&st=0&sk=t&sd ... i#p1086296

this works VERY well for me. perhaps it can help you too?

[lastmango]

Boil n bite mouth guard? Something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/Mouth-Guard-ProD ... mouthguard

Thanks for your help!!

[djams]

Yes, my comments on the increased AHI are due to the overview information only.

Well, I feel like i need to provide a little data to back up telling you to ignore the AHI summary only data.

Here is 8 day period (summary data) from my machine. AHI as reported by SleepyHead and ResScan.

RS=ResScan, SH=SleepyHead(summary data only)

RS=9.7, SH=3.17
RS=4.3, SH=0.59
RS=4.0, SH=1.09
RS=6.4, SH=0.73
RS=3.5, SH=1.13
RS=5.0, SH=0.74
RS=5.0, SH=4.05
RS=7.9, SH=1.06

You can see - varies from kinda close, to not even close.

So if it's important to know your AHI over the entire time frame, you can get it with ResScan.

[palerider]

Boil n bite mouth guard? Something like this?

https://www.amazon.com/Mouth-Guard-ProD ... mouthguard

Thanks for your help!!

You need one that covers top and bottom teeth... more like the athletic type, but without the breathing hole in the middle.

[lastmango]

I just downloaded the ResScan software and uploaded my data. It essentially shows the same results, low AHI and high leak rate. Am I mistaken to assume that with a low AHI I am receiving the full benefits of CPAP therapy? As I mentioned above, I'm asking because I don't feel as good or rested the past few months, but my AHI is as low as ever, however, I have been receiving the "unhappy leak face" most mornings from my machine.

[Pugsy]

While it is possible that with really big large leaks (like over 45 L/min) your machine might be missing some events because the leak was so bad it didn't know the event was happening and thus giving you a false low AHI during the periods of large leak...the times when not in large leak greatly outweigh the times in large leak and I don't think that it would change the AHI all that much.
Now if you spent half the night deep in large leak territory then it might be more apt to affect the AHI more.

Mr Frowny doesn't show up on the machine until you spend at least 30% of the night in large leak territory.
How critical that might be in terms of the machine recording events or missing them depends on how deep the large leak went.
Was it at 26 L/min most of the time or 46 L/min most of the time.
These machines won't start not being able to sense anything until somewhere around 40 L/min and you would have some unknown apnea flags first most likely.

[lastmango]

Is the effectiveness of my therapy compromised because I am having a higher leak rate in spite of low AHI readings?

[palerider]

Is the effectiveness of my therapy compromised because I am having a higher leak rate in spite of low AHI readings?

No, but the high leaks may compromise the quality of your sleep.

[lastmango]

Can you explain? I went from 30+ AHI per hour pre therapy to less than 1 per hour now. I thought the primary measurement of the quality of my sleep was my AHI? Please bear with me but how will a high leak rate hurt the quality of my sleep if my AHI is that good?

That being said, I still don’t feel that rested in spite of a good AHI which is what I’m really trying to figure out why.

[palerider]

Can you explain? I went from 30+ AHI per hour pre therapy to less than 1 per hour now. I thought the primary measurement of the quality of my sleep was my AHI? Please bear with me but how will a high leak rate hurt the quality of my sleep if my AHI is that good?

That being said, I still don’t feel that rested in spite of a good AHI which is what I’m really trying to figure out why.

Because there's more to sleep disturbances than apneas and hypopneas.

snoring doesn't show up in AHI, but it's bad for you. Flow limitations increase the work of breathing and reduce rest, but don't show up in AHI, if leaks are bothering you, either from noise, or something else, and that's disturbing your sleep, it's going to make you less rested, but isn't going to show up in your AHI.