How reliable and trustworthy is data from a CPAP machine?

[barney999]

As I was writing my last comment, I seem to recall hearing something about Bleep working on a Full Face mask.

Does anyone know anything about that?

[Pugsy]

As I was writing my last comment, I seem to recall hearing something about Bleep working on a Full Face mask.

Does anyone know anything about that?

Never heard of that at all. I am zero help with full face masks. I don't really like them at all for various reasons and my only experience is just trying a couple for grins. In nearly 12 years I haven't had a night where I just had to use a FFM and I doubt I ever will. I don't even own one.

About the CAs/centrals when on your back (or actually anytime).....if on your back and the chipmunk cheeks is causing awakenings and poor sleep then those centrals could very well be false positives and not mean anything except that you aren't sleeping soundly.
Cure the sleep problem and the centrals might just go away.

Now do understand that it is entirely normal for people to have a few central apneas here and there that are real asleep centrals and they don't mean anything. It's normal to have a few. Just not normal to have large clusters of them.

[GrumpyHere]

As I was writing my last comment, I seem to recall hearing something about Bleep working on a Full Face mask.

Does anyone know anything about that?

IIRC in the interview with Jason, he said they are concentrating on the Dreamports system for now.

He would love to work out an adhesive FFM.
But as a start-up they didn't have the financials to work on two separate projects.

[barney999]

As I was writing my last comment, I seem to recall hearing something about Bleep working on a Full Face mask.

Does anyone know anything about that?

IIRC in the interview with Jason, he said they are concentrating on the Dreamports system for now.

He would love to work out an adhesive FFM.
But as a start-up they didn't have the financials to work on two separate projects.

Thanks for the info! Makes sense.

[barney999]

As I was writing my last comment, I seem to recall hearing something about Bleep working on a Full Face mask.

Does anyone know anything about that?

Never heard of that at all. I am zero help with full face masks. I don't really like them at all for various reasons and my only experience is just trying a couple for grins. In nearly 12 years I haven't had a night where I just had to use a FFM and I doubt I ever will. I don't even own one.

About the CAs/centrals when on your back (or actually anytime).....if on your back and the chipmunk cheeks is causing awakenings and poor sleep then those centrals could very well be false positives and not mean anything except that you aren't sleeping soundly.
Cure the sleep problem and the centrals might just go away.

Now do understand that it is entirely normal for people to have a few central apneas here and there that are real asleep centrals and they don't mean anything. It's normal to have a few. Just not normal to have large clusters of them.

You make great points, which got me thinking about how to cure the sleep problem when on my back. Since I can't seem to be able to get rid of the chipmunk cheeks with a nasal mask solution, perhaps I should retry the full face mask to see if I can possibly get that to provide better sleep when on my back.

I think what I'll try to do over the next couple of days is to wear the full face mask when reading, either on the couch or when laying in bed, over a number of days just to get fully used to it before trying again to sleep with it.

Thanks Pugsy!

[barney999]

What I am trying to figure out if those centrals flagged are real asleep centrals in which case there are a potential problem or if they are simply awake breathing irregularities getting flagged by mistake.

Guess you need to take a crash course in flow rate evaluation.
Watch the videos here with special attention to the bottom one.
http://freecpapadvice.com/sleepyhead-free-software

I checked out the videos. Very helpful! Thanks for turning me on to them.

I also found this one from Jason (LankyLefty) titled "Central Sleep Apneas (Clear Airway Apneas) in SleepyHead vs Central Sleep Apneas in Sleep Study" that does a great job of explaining CA's. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xallwxPCg84

From my untrained eye looking at my Oscar data, I believe that I have at least some real CA's while sleeping, which my Sleep Lab study also reported.

However, for now, I'm going to follow your suggestion of focusing on the sleep quality when sleeping on my back and not worry about the CA's, as they may go away if I can improve the sleep quality on my back.

[barney999]

As I was writing my last comment, I seem to recall hearing something about Bleep working on a Full Face mask.

Does anyone know anything about that?

Never heard of that at all. I am zero help with full face masks. I don't really like them at all for various reasons and my only experience is just trying a couple for grins. In nearly 12 years I haven't had a night where I just had to use a FFM and I doubt I ever will. I don't even own one.

About the CAs/centrals when on your back (or actually anytime).....if on your back and the chipmunk cheeks is causing awakenings and poor sleep then those centrals could very well be false positives and not mean anything except that you aren't sleeping soundly.
Cure the sleep problem and the centrals might just go away.

Now do understand that it is entirely normal for people to have a few central apneas here and there that are real asleep centrals and they don't mean anything. It's normal to have a few. Just not normal to have large clusters of them.

You make great points, which got me thinking about how to cure the sleep problem when on my back. Since I can't seem to be able to get rid of the chipmunk cheeks with a nasal mask solution, perhaps I should retry the full face mask to see if I can possibly get that to provide better sleep when on my back.

I think what I'll try to do over the next couple of days is to wear the full face mask when reading, either on the couch or when laying in bed, over a number of days just to get fully used to it before trying again to sleep with it.

Thanks Pugsy!

So I dug out my FFM and have been wearing it around the house, unconnected to my APAP machine. My initial feeling is YUCK! That's not because I can't breathe with it or anything like that. The YUCK is just the feeling of wearing it, with the frame around my face and head, leaving creases in both. It makes me really appreciate my BLEEP!!!

That said, I'm still going to give the FFM a shot to see if it can improve my sleep quality while sleeping on my back.

[Pugsy]

My initial feeling is YUCK

My thoughts even before the Bleep was released.
I know people need them and like them and some prefer them but I am never going to be in that boat.
I realize my limitations, accept them and move on. There is one that I have actually slept (at least somewhat) that I suppose I might use if I just absolutely had to but in 12 years on cpap...never really HAD to. I don't see that changing anytime soon so I just moved on.

Getting sleep...decent sleep has always been my number one priority because without sleep none of the other stuff really matters.
Doesn't matter if you have a perfect leak line if you don't sleep.
Doesn't matter if the AHI is 0.0 if you don't sleep.
If I don't sleep I feel like crap no matter how well or badly my OSA is dealt with. I don't like feeling like crap simply from not enough sleep and that is something I am dealing with right now but it isn't related to cpap, apnea or anything like that.
Other things in life mess with sleep and I am in that boat right now. It's an ugly boat too.

[barney999]

My initial feeling is YUCK

I know people need them and like them and some prefer them but I am never going to be in that boat.

Unless a FFM is my only option to get better sleep, I can't see myself ever changing to another mask over the BLEEP.

I don't like feeling like crap simply from not enough sleep and that is something I am dealing with right now but it isn't related to cpap, apnea or anything like that.
Other things in life mess with sleep and I am in that boat right now. It's an ugly boat too.

I'm very sorry to hear this. I sincerely hope there's a path to get you out of that boat!

[barney999]

Today I wore my FFM around the house abit, then this afternoon, I laid in bed and attached it to my APAP. I changed the setting "Full Face Mask", but otherwise left my normal settings that I use with my Bleep.

For around 10 to 15 minutes I read, then tried to nap. I never slept. Air didn't try to escape from my mouth, but I felt like I stopped breathing a number of times, generally right when I was close to dozing off. I believe I would have fallen asleep if I had been wearing my Bleep.

I got up after 1hr 20min.

I checked the Oscar data and was surprised to see so many OSA. I almost never see OSAs when using my Bleep, though I do see a lot a flagged CA's with the Bleep.

Anyway, anyone have insight on why so many OSA's? Is it normal to see OSA's while awake?

Any explanation why I would stop breathing right before I was about to doze off?

screenshot-20210514-173953.png (89.84 KiB) Viewed 870 times

[Pugsy]

The machine doesn't know if you are asleep or not. All it measures is flow rate/breathing.
Our awake breathing is very irregular when compared to asleep breathing and these machines can and will flag those awake breathing irregularities as some sort of apnea event. Usually CA but can also be OA/hyponea. It also responds to those irregularities it might think are OAs with more pressure.

As to maybe stopping breathing when falling asleep...there are situations where people have what is called sleep onset central apneas. This is actually normal to have happen on occasion. No big deal unless the person has a truckload of them and they keep bouncing the person out of sleep. Central apneas are when there is no air flow but the airway is open....no effort to breathe...that's a central apnea.
Hold your breath for 10 seconds .....that's a 10 second central apnea. The airway is open but there is no effort to breathe.
Random central apneas flagged....not a big deal. They are only a problem when present in large numbers AND you are for sure asleep.