Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

General Discussion on any topic relating to CPAP and/or Sleep Apnea.
mlandau33
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Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2021 1:28 pm

Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by mlandau33 » Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:05 am

I would appreciate any thoughts on my OSCAR data. I've been on CPAP for four months and have gone through a number of masks. With the help of many people on this forum, I have found the best mask for me - either Bleeps or the N30. I use one strip of vertical tape over my mouth plus a headband over my mouth. These have gotten my air leaks level down from 60.

Thanks for all the help and support.
MLandau33
AirSense 10 AutoSet
Resmed N30

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ChicagoGranny
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by ChicagoGranny » Thu Sep 02, 2021 12:18 pm

mlandau33 wrote:
Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:05 am
I would appreciate any thoughts on my OSCAR data.
Did you forget to include it?

mlandau33
Posts: 32
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by mlandau33 » Thu Sep 02, 2021 1:02 pm

ChicagoGranny wrote:
Thu Sep 02, 2021 12:18 pm
mlandau33 wrote:
Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:05 am
I would appreciate any thoughts on my OSCAR data.
Did you forget to include it?
Yes, I am getting old.
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MLandau33
AirSense 10 AutoSet
Resmed N30

SleeplessInDayton
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by SleeplessInDayton » Thu Sep 02, 2021 6:24 pm

Seems like a large number of clear airways events...did your sleep study have a large number of central apaneas events?
Mask: ResMed AirFit F20
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zonker
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by zonker » Thu Sep 02, 2021 6:47 pm

mlandau33 wrote:
Thu Sep 02, 2021 1:02 pm
ChicagoGranny wrote:
Thu Sep 02, 2021 12:18 pm
mlandau33 wrote:
Thu Sep 02, 2021 11:05 am
I would appreciate any thoughts on my OSCAR data.
Did you forget to include it?
Yes, I am getting old.
it's always a good thing to let us know how you slept when posting a graph. did you sleep fairly well? did you have a lot of wake ups? feel poorly in the morning? and so on.
people say i'm self absorbed.
but that's enough about them.
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zonker
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by zonker » Thu Sep 02, 2021 6:49 pm

SleeplessInDayton wrote:
Thu Sep 02, 2021 6:24 pm
Seems like a large number of clear airways events...did your sleep study have a large number of central apaneas events?
when someone is starting therapy, they may register what appears to be a large number of clear airway events. and they may find they disappear as their therapy progresses.

or at least, that was the case for me.
people say i'm self absorbed.
but that's enough about them.
Oscar-Win
https://www.apneaboard.com/OSCAR/OSCAR-1.5.1-Win64.exe
Oscar-Mac
https://www.apneaboard.com/OSCAR/OSCAR-1.5.1.dmg

mlandau33
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by mlandau33 » Fri Sep 03, 2021 10:56 am

I slept reasonably well.
Since I began CPAP several months ago, I've had similar amounts of "clear airway" events, uncorrelated to the number of "obstructive" events. My in-hospital sleep test averaged 1.4/hour when sleeping on my back and 0.2/hour (small sample) when sleeping on my side. What I can tell you, my O2 levels have improved substantially since I began CPAP. On most nights I'm between 95-99 (using a Wellue) 02 ring. Prior to CPAP, I was constantly getting drops well down into the eighties.
MLandau33
AirSense 10 AutoSet
Resmed N30

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Miss Emerita
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by Miss Emerita » Fri Sep 03, 2021 11:15 am

Could you post last night's chart, first doing two things:

* Turn off the calendar by clicking the triangle next to today's date.

* Squeeze in the following graphs:

Events
Flow rate
Pressure
Leaks
Flow limitations
Snores.

You can squeeze them into a single screen shot by grabbing the horizontal gray bars that separate them and pushing them up a little.
Oscar software is available at https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/

mlandau33
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by mlandau33 » Fri Sep 03, 2021 8:28 pm

Miss Emerita wrote:
Fri Sep 03, 2021 11:15 am
Could you post last night's chart, first doing two things:

* Turn off the calendar by clicking the triangle next to today's date.

* Squeeze in the following graphs:

Events
Flow rate
Pressure
Leaks
Flow limitations
Snores.

You can squeeze them into a single screen shot by grabbing the horizontal gray bars that separate them and pushing them up a little.
Will do for tonight's sleep chart (last night was not a good representation because of market-related happenings.
MLandau33
AirSense 10 AutoSet
Resmed N30

mlandau33
Posts: 32
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2021 1:28 pm

Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by mlandau33 » Sat Sep 04, 2021 8:24 am

mlandau33 wrote:
Fri Sep 03, 2021 8:28 pm
Miss Emerita wrote:
Fri Sep 03, 2021 11:15 am
Could you post last night's chart, first doing two things:

* Turn off the calendar by clicking the triangle next to today's date.

* Squeeze in the following graphs:

Events
Flow rate
Pressure
Leaks
Flow limitations
Snores.

You can squeeze them into a single screen shot by grabbing the horizontal gray bars that separate them and pushing them up a little.
Will do for tonight's sleep chart (last night was not a good representation because of market-related happenings.
Here goes (note that the large leak around 06:00 was my fault):
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MLandau33
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Resmed N30

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Miss Emerita
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by Miss Emerita » Sat Sep 04, 2021 12:08 pm

Thanks for the reformatting. If you're sleeping reasonably well, you can definitely consider just sticking with your current settings. You might see additional improvement in your daytime functioning if you slept longer, six hours is not enough for many people.

You are seeing a fair number of central apnea events. Judging from your total time in apnea, your CAs and OAs are all pretty short in duration. Some of the CAs may just be 10-second pauses between breaths after a sigh; others may be pauses after an arousal. In the latter case, it's the arousal more than the CA itself that's problematic.

Your flow-limitation graph is quite active, and your machine will tend to raise pressures in response to FLs. The FLs themselves, and the higher pressures, may be of no consequence to how well you're sleeping, or they may be preventing you from sleeping as well as you could. For that reason, I'll present a second option (the first being to change nothing).

FLs can reflect nasal congestion or they can reflect a loosening of the tissues lining the airway, often in the pharynx, or they can be some of each. If you zoom in on your flow rate, you will probably see inhalation traces that are flattened or dented on the top. You need to exert more effort to complete your inhalation, and that repeated effort can interfere with the normal progression of sleep stages.

The best way to treat FLs is to introduce EPR -- expiratory pressure relief. With EPR of 1, for example, your pressure will be 1 cm H2O lower when you exhale than when you inhale, which means it'll be 1 higher when you inhale than when you exhale. This little boost can help you complete your inhalations with less effort. EPR can also be set at 2 and 3. Sometimes EPR will increase the number of CAs, more often it won't.

So the second option I'd suggest is to turn on EPR at a setting of 1. Also raise your minimum pressure to 12; otherwise your pressure on exhale will be 10 (a drop of 1 from 11), which might leave you vulnerable to more OAs (though you have so few this isn't a huge worry). If you try this and it goes OK for a few nights, you could up the EPR to 2, then perhaps later 3.

Your choice, really.
Oscar software is available at https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/

mlandau33
Posts: 32
Joined: Fri Jun 25, 2021 1:28 pm

Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by mlandau33 » Sat Sep 04, 2021 1:14 pm

Miss Emerita wrote:
Sat Sep 04, 2021 12:08 pm
Thanks for the reformatting. If you're sleeping reasonably well, you can definitely consider just sticking with your current settings. You might see additional improvement in your daytime functioning if you slept longer, six hours is not enough for many people.

You are seeing a fair number of central apnea events. Judging from your total time in apnea, your CAs and OAs are all pretty short in duration. Some of the CAs may just be 10-second pauses between breaths after a sigh; others may be pauses after an arousal. In the latter case, it's the arousal more than the CA itself that's problematic.

Your flow-limitation graph is quite active, and your machine will tend to raise pressures in response to FLs. The FLs themselves, and the higher pressures, may be of no consequence to how well you're sleeping, or they may be preventing you from sleeping as well as you could. For that reason, I'll present a second option (the first being to change nothing).

FLs can reflect nasal congestion or they can reflect a loosening of the tissues lining the airway, often in the pharynx, or they can be some of each. If you zoom in on your flow rate, you will probably see inhalation traces that are flattened or dented on the top. You need to exert more effort to complete your inhalation, and that repeated effort can interfere with the normal progression of sleep stages.

The best way to treat FLs is to introduce EPR -- expiratory pressure relief. With EPR of 1, for example, your pressure will be 1 cm H2O lower when you exhale than when you inhale, which means it'll be 1 higher when you inhale than when you exhale. This little boost can help you complete your inhalations with less effort. EPR can also be set at 2 and 3. Sometimes EPR will increase the number of CAs, more often it won't.

So the second option I'd suggest is to turn on EPR at a setting of 1. Also raise your minimum pressure to 12; otherwise your pressure on exhale will be 10 (a drop of 1 from 11), which might leave you vulnerable to more OAs (though you have so few this isn't a huge worry). If you try this and it goes OK for a few nights, you could up the EPR to 2, then perhaps later 3.

Your choice, really.
Thanks, Miss Emerita. I have nasal congestion for sure. I've been on allergy shots and nasal sprays which have helped. That six hour sleep amount was really 7.25 hours. The last 1.25 hours showed up a couple of hours later on the SD card. I will follow your advice on EPR and also adjust up the lower pressure limit.
MLandau33
AirSense 10 AutoSet
Resmed N30

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Miss Emerita
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by Miss Emerita » Sat Sep 04, 2021 10:48 pm

I’ll be curious to see the results from those changes.
Oscar software is available at https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/

mlandau33
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by mlandau33 » Sun Sep 05, 2021 11:54 am

Miss Emerita wrote:
Sat Sep 04, 2021 10:48 pm
I’ll be curious to see the results from those changes.
I'll post in another couple of days. Last night got messed up because I did not set up my Bleep Dreamport correctly.
MLandau33
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Resmed N30

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Miss Emerita
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Re: Evaluation of My OSCAR Data

Post by Miss Emerita » Sun Sep 05, 2021 2:09 pm

I hate when that happens! Good luck tonight.
Oscar software is available at https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/