Sleepyhead data question

[SleepingUgly]

It's hard for me to picture a nasal pillow leak so large that it would be in excess of 24l and one that wouldn't wake someone who is not a heavy sleeper. I know that when I have nasal leaks that wake me, they look very minor on the graph. So personally I can't imagine such large leaks occurring from a pillow leak. Maybe we should do an experiment and while awake dislodge pillow slightly and see what it looks like on the data. I bet it would have to be out of the nose to create that large a leak, but that's just my guess. Anyone with information otherwise, please speak up...

[SleepingUgly]

I'm typically a nose breather at night.

I'm not sure how you would know this. But even if you typically breathe through your nose on 0cm of pressure, it doesn't mean that there isn't a tendency for your mouth to drop open, and when you add 10cm of pressure to that, you can have mouth leaks.

[Pugsy]

It's hard for me to picture a nasal pillow leak so large that it would be in excess of 24l and one that wouldn't wake someone who is not a heavy sleeper

I also think that a really huge leak is most likely from the nasal pillow slipping out of the nostril.
BUT
get a load of this little jewel. Not one of my most stellar nights with the Bella Loops.
I am a fairly light sleeper...I remember only 2 times waking and fiddling the the mask.
Talk about ugly leak line and I can't blame it on the scale.

[NateS]

It's hard for me to picture a nasal pillow leak so large that it would be in excess of 24l and one that wouldn't wake someone who is not a heavy sleeper. I know that when I have nasal leaks that wake me, they look very minor on the graph. So personally I can't imagine such large leaks occurring from a pillow leak. Maybe we should do an experiment and while awake dislodge pillow slightly and see what it looks like on the data. I bet it would have to be out of the nose to create that large a leak, but that's just my guess. Anyone with information otherwise, please speak up...

There are times when a nasal leak does not wake me, so I set my ResMed to audibly signal leaks. That works great - I hear the beep=beep-beep better than the hissing and it wakes me up, which usually is solved with a slight readjustment of my nasal pillows. As soon as I readjust, the ResMed stops beeping - nothing to shut off.

Nate

[Zzzzzzzzzzz...]

It's hard for me to picture a nasal pillow leak so large that it would be in excess of 24l and one that wouldn't wake someone who is not a heavy sleeper

I also think that a really huge leak is most likely from the nasal pillow slipping out of the nostril.
BUT
get a load of this little jewel. Not one of my most stellar nights with the Bella Loops.
I am a fairly light sleeper...I remember only 2 times waking and fiddling the the mask.
Talk about ugly leak line and I can't blame it on the scale.

Yikes. How did that effect your morning data/AHI?

[Zzzzzzzzzzz...]

It's hard for me to picture a nasal pillow leak so large that it would be in excess of 24l and one that wouldn't wake someone who is not a heavy sleeper. I know that when I have nasal leaks that wake me, they look very minor on the graph. So personally I can't imagine such large leaks occurring from a pillow leak. Maybe we should do an experiment and while awake dislodge pillow slightly and see what it looks like on the data. I bet it would have to be out of the nose to create that large a leak, but that's just my guess. Anyone with information otherwise, please speak up...

If my numbers look good, and I FEEL good... does it really matter how large/small/often my leaks are? Put differently, if I'm trying to lose weight and my clothes fit better, do I care what the scale says? (assuming normal cholesterol, bp, glucose levels, etc.)

[Pugsy]

If my numbers look good, and I FEEL good... does it really matter how large/small/often my leaks are?

Probably doesn't matter unless a huge amount of time spent in large leak which might mess with the machine's sensors to the point that they miss scoring events and give a "false" low AHI.

You asked how the rest of the night looked with the ugly leak night? Pretty darn good and I felt like I always feel with this machine which is pretty darn good. Did it miss a few events during the great leak? Maybe..but I have similar reports when I have no large leaks. So who knows for sure. If some were missed it isn't the end of the world. I don't expect perfection and this particular night was with the Bella Loop headgear and I didn't have it adjusted quite right yet.
The time around 40 L/min leak...that may have impacted the sensors a bit but since the rest of the night was also quite good...I doubt it was seriously impacted. I wouldn't want to see this leak all the time but an occasional ugly night is going to happen from time to time anyway.

[SleepingUgly]

If my numbers look good, and I FEEL good... does it really matter how large/small/often my leaks are?

Is that the situation?

[Zzzzzzzzzzz...]

If my numbers look good, and I FEEL good... does it really matter how large/small/often my leaks are?

Is that the situation?

It is today!

[Zzzzzzzzzzz...]

If my numbers look good, and I FEEL good... does it really matter how large/small/often my leaks are?

Probably doesn't matter unless a huge amount of time spent in large leak which might mess with the machine's sensors to the point that they miss scoring events and give a "false" low AHI.

You asked how the rest of the night looked with the ugly leak night? Pretty darn good and I felt like I always feel with this machine which is pretty darn good. Did it miss a few events during the great leak? Maybe..but I have similar reports when I have no large leaks. So who knows for sure. If some were missed it isn't the end of the world. I don't expect perfection and this particular night was with the Bella Loop headgear and I didn't have it adjusted quite right yet.
The time around 40 L/min leak...that may have impacted the sensors a bit but since the rest of the night was also quite good...I doubt it was seriously impacted. I wouldn't want to see this leak all the time but an occasional ugly night is going to happen from time to time anyway.

Nice number. That's my goal! Leaks or not.

Thanks,

-Z

[Pugsy]

Nice number. That's my goal! Leaks or not.

I don't dwell so much on a certain number...I prefer to measure things by "acceptable numbers" and how I feel as the most important thing. Early in my therapy I had one day where I woke up and felt awesome. I think it was about 3 months into things. I thought for sure I must have had a most spectacular no event night. I was busy and didn't check my reports until that evening. Imagine my surprise when I saw an AHI of 10.something. Go figure that one.

An AHI like the one shown above on my report doesn't guarantee that anyone feels any better than an AHI of 3.
It is kind of nice to pat yourself on the back when you do have a really low score though.
I have had one AHI 0.0 night...in nearly three years. A couple of weeks ago I had a night where I had only one lousy hyponea show up. All night long..one single little hyponea or I would have had AHI 0.0.

Sometimes people try so hard to obtain that AHI of 0.0 and a perfect no leak at all night, that they cause themselves more grief and worry than is necessary. I call it chasing numbers instead of chasing how I feel. It's nice to see the low numbers but I don't beat myself up if I don't have them all the time.

[Zzzzzzzzzzz...]

Nice number. That's my goal! Leaks or not.

I don't dwell so much on a certain number...I prefer to measure things by "acceptable numbers" and how I feel as the most important thing. Early in my therapy I had one day where I woke up and felt awesome. I think it was about 3 months into things. I thought for sure I must have had a most spectacular no event night. I was busy and didn't check my reports until that evening. Imagine my surprise when I saw an AHI of 10.something. Go figure that one.

An AHI like the one shown above on my report doesn't guarantee that anyone feels any better than an AHI of 3.
It is kind of nice to pap yourself on the back when you do have a really low score though.
I have had one AHI 0.0 night...in nearly three years. A couple of weeks ago I had a night where I had only one lousy hyponea show up. All night long..one single little hyponea or I would have had AHI 0.0.

Sometimes people try so hard to obtain that AHI of 0.0 and a perfect no leak at all night, that they cause themselves more grief and worry than is necessary. I call it chasing numbers instead of chasing how I feel. It's nice to see the low numbers but I don't beat myself up if I don't have them all the time.

My point exactly. If your clothes fit better, why step on a scale?

[SleepingUgly]

My point exactly. If your clothes fit better, why step on a scale?

Why don't you just get bigger clothes, and then they will fit better?