new to cpap

My leak rate is high but the events is low. What can cause this?

What machine are you using?
How much is the leak rate that you think is "high"?
Where are you getting that leak rate number? What is telling you that you are having large leaks? Software?

If you are truly having a massive big leak then there is a chance that the leak is so big that the machine doesn't know what is going on and might be missing sensing/flagging of events and thus the AHI is low because the machine was clueless.

But it takes a really big leak for this to happen and while you might be getting some large leak going on..it might not be big enough to cause the machine to be clueless.

To know for sure we need to evaluate the leak graph and to do that you need software and to tell you what software works...we need to know what machine you are using...Brand and model.

I am using Resmed air sense 10 auto set with the Resmed swift LT. I called the DME to see how I was doing and they said leaks are very high nd events low. I am exhausted

You can use SleepyHead software or Rescan to see exactly what is going on.
The DME is using the numbers off the MyAir website and sometimes the numbers don't tell the whole story.
If your 95% leak number is 26 L/min...it's going to raise alarms but it doesn't necessarily mean that alarms are warranted.

You are new to this therapy and I could go into a long drawn out explanation but how about we just use the software and let's figure out exactly how bad that leak is.

First...there is data available on the machine itself...it's limited but it's a starting point until you get the software in place.
You need to change a setting in the clinical setup menu
See this manual...read it as it explains how to get to the setup menu.
The setting you want to change is "Essentials"...it needs to say "Essentials Plus" and then you can access the data on the machine's LCD screen. You may also need to change the setting that allows you to see the data on the LCD screen.
All this is explained in the manual
https://sleep.tnet.com/home/files/resme ... -guide.pdf

The leak number off the LCD screen is what we call a 95% number...all that means is for 95% of the time you were at OR BELOW that leak number. People tend to panic and forget the "or below" part of the definition. ResMed's line in the sand is 24 L/min excess leak. There are degrees of "how bad" the leak is...the further over 24 L/min you go the worse it gets but the machine can do a fairly decent enough job up to 30 to 35 L/min.
So let's see what your 95% number is.

Then let's get you the software so we can see the leak in greater detail.
Sleepyhead has both Windows and Mac versions available.
Start here
https://sleep.tnet.com/equipment

It may seem like there is a lot to try to comprehend...and there is but take it slowly in small chunks and you can get through it.

First thing...get the data from the machine's LCD screen...it will tell us just how urgent (or not urgent) it is to get the software stuff up and running.

I can get to the screen with the general sleep report and happy faces but not the more detailed info

Read the manual above...you need to make a change so that you can see the extra details.
page 14 for how to access
page 17 for the Essentials plus mention
Right now it is probably set to "On"....you need to change it to "Plus" then more details will be available on the LCD screen under the Sleep Report that you can get to.

Thanks.

Pressure 13.6
Leak 34
AHI 4.6
Total AHI 4.5
Central AHI 1.3

Ah...34 L/min off the machine's LCD screen...means you were at OR BELOW that leak for 95% of the time and conversely higher 5% of the time.

So you have some significant leaks going on and we are going to have to dig deeper to see just how bad things are.
What we don't know is how much of the time the leak was below 24 L/min. Can't tell that without the software reports.

The AHI comes into question when we start getting over 35 L/min..up to then the machine can usually sense something is going on but may not know exactly what...and that's when we get a lot of "unknown apnea" flags when leaks are over 30 L/min.
The main problem with trusting the AHI when leaks are high...did the machine simply miss them or maybe they didn't even happen.

At least the 95% number isn't 45 or 50 I have seen those numbers on reports.
When you have time get Sleepyhead installed and learn how to organize and post images of your reports and then we can figure out just how critical it is to work on those leaks and maybe a best plan to work on them.

When you have time read this thread as it has some examples of what we need to see
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html

And this for how to use imgur to host the images...you can use any web photo hosting website but imgur is a bit easier to manage and Photobucket has got so damn slow I don't like them anymore. https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur

You are using a nasal pillow mask..the ResMed Swift LT.
Most likely you are doing some mouth breathing which is the likely cause of the majority of the leak situation unless you tell me that your mask is sliding all over the place.
Let's look at the graphs to see just how critical it might be to work on fixing them and you can decide best avenue to to try to fix...first thing might be a chin strap to help keep mouth closed.
But before going to a lot of trouble and worry....let's look at the leak graphs from the software report.

I used a chin strap last night.
Pressure 13
Leak 18
AHI 1.2

I am curious to see if I get similar results tonight

Last night, my leak was 24 and events still low. Is the leak still too high?

You need to understand what the leak number given on the machine's LCD display means and I think you will have a better understanding of where you are at in terms of "is this leak really bad or not".

The leak number shown on the LCD screen is what we call a 95% number and 95% number just means we were at OR below that number for 95% of the night. Over course that also means 5 % of the time we were above that number but we don't know how "bad" it was. I personally don't really worry about the 5% part. 5% of the night is really nothing.
I target either the overall average leak number (which you would need software to see) or if using the 95% number personally I use 30 L/min as more of a guide.
ResMed draws the line in the sand for large leak territory at 24 L/min but I have found that the 95% leak number can be easily made to look worse than the leak maybe really was. For that reason I always look at the actual leak graphs when I see a 95% number over 24 L/min.

People tend to forget the "or below" part of the definition and think "OMG the machine said I spent 95% of the night at 27 L/min (number on the screen used as example which I will in more detail in a bit) but they don't remember the "or below" part and for all we know the time spent above 24 L/min might have amounted to 15 minutes which to me isn't the end of the world.

I have 3 things that I use to qualify leaks in terms of is it serious or not.
1...are the leaks waking me up? Any leak that wakes me up I want to fix because it is messing with my sleep...and if they aren't waking me up am I feeling okay otherwise?
2...just how bad or how far into large leak territory did I go?...things don't start getting iffy until we start seeing leaks over 30 L/min in terms of the machine responding, sensing and flagging events. Iffy over 30...and over 35 L/min then it's pretty much unreliable.
3...how long did I actually spend in large leak? Was it 15 minutes out of maybe 7 hours or was it 3 hours out of 7 hours of sleep. I am not going to worry about a relatively short period of time even in massive leak as long as I slept well.

Here in this thread is a more detailed explanation of how the 95% numbers can sometimes make us think things were worse than they really are and it shows how we really need the software reports to evaluate and know for sure.
viewtopic.php?f=1&t=86705&st=0&sk=t&sd=a&start=45
In this one my 95% number was 27 L/min and you can see that time spent over the red line wasn't really all that long and I was just barely over 24 L/min. It's not a real pretty leak graph but I slept through all of it and I felt decent. I have had worse and better looking reports.

For you with your 24 L/min 95% number...as long as the leaks didn't wake you up...I would consider that acceptable and not worry about going down the road of trying to do something special to fix it....like chin straps or taping. I don't think that it is bad enough to impact therapy...the machine can compensate for considerable leak.
Now if you tell me you had multiple wake ups because of the leak only...it needs work because it is disturbing sleep.

You are very new to this therapy and it is also very likely that you have some wake ups simply due to the fact that the brain is still "hyper alert" to having the mask on and air going up your nose.
So at this stage you may be having some wake ups just because the brain wants to tell you that there's some sort of alien on your face. This will fade with time. I think it took me about 2 months for the brain to stop those wake ups.

So....to make a long story short...I wouldn't worry about a 24 L/min 95% leak number (as long as it isn't causing multiple wake ups) because I bet that most of the time you were well below that number. When you get the software up and running you will be able to see what I am talking about.
I wouldn't even worry about a 95% leak number of 30 L/min...over that and I really would have to see the actual graphs to make any concrete evaluation. It's possible to have 7 hours of below large leak line and 45 minutes of really big leak to make that 95% number over 35...so that's when the evaluation for how much time becomes more important.

But if going only by the LCD leak number...24 is acceptable. Probably not a real pretty leak line but the machine can manage it and the data is probably accurate.