CPAP Compliance

I am a 3ish year CPAP user with some questions. I have always been a good CPAPer from a compliance standpoint but this past month has caused me some sill unneeded stress. My job involves a license every 5 year renewal which involves a medical evaluation and this is the first time Im being evaluated since I was diagnosed with very mild sleep apnea. Well they've made it a crazy ordeal requiring my old sleep study results, me do another followup, and they want my sleep apnea logs. They require 70% usage for 30 days and >4 hours in the last month. I thought to myself no problem. I looked at my logs which I haven't done in quite sometime because like I said I am a seasoned CPAPer and the 30 day number was 18 and my average hours were 3:45, then I remember I had the worst upper respiratory infection at the beginning of the month which the CPAP just blew into my congested nose so I couldn't wear it for 4-6 days then my wife got it and I could sleep listening to her cough all night so I spent 3-4 nights on the couch. In regards to my hours I have no idea why they are so low the only thing I can think of is since the new year my wife and I went on a health kick and part of it was drinking a ton more water so I pee 2x a night, no big deal, I turn off my cap get up and go and come back put it back on and go back to sleep. Does that reset my 1day counter? I average 5.5-7 hours a sleep a night but my machine is telling me 3:45.

So now I am looking like Im not complaint which could cost me my CARRER over dumb numbers from the previous month what my DR told me was a very very mild almost not worth treating sleep apnea. They've held my license up for this and now its due to expire at the end of the month. Couple of questions does tuning the machine off to go pee screw up the timer and reset me back? I slept a straight 6.5 last night and it didn't add a day to my 30 day log it stayed at 18, should of gone to 19. Why didn't it? I really like the machine and feel it does help the quality of my sleep so I wear it. Is there a way to get my numbers back up short of walking around with it on all day? Thanks for any advice or help.

Add your machine info to your profile.

I added my machine but I don't see it showing up just humidifier and mask...

Its the PR System One AutoBiPap with BIFLEX

baydogs,

I can't answer most of your questions. But I can answer this one:

baydogs wrote:In regards to my hours I have no idea why they are so low the only thing I can think of is since the new year my wife and I went on a health kick and part of it was drinking a ton more water so I pee 2x a night, no big deal, I turn off my cap get up and go and come back put it back on and go back to sleep. Does that reset my 1day counter? I average 5.5-7 hours a sleep a night but my machine is telling me 3:45.

Where does the 3:45 number come from?

In general, usage numbers are measured from 12:00 noon to 12:00 noon. So if you have multiple sessions, they all count---when you are looking at the usage data in the software written by the manufacturers of CPAP machines. So if you have a usage pattern that looks like this:

• 11:00pm-12:30, 1:00-4:00, 4:15-6:00, and a nap from 2:00-3:00pm

The "usage" for the (first) day is 1.5+3+1.75=6.25. The hour long nap goes into the usage for the next day since it happened after noon.

Couple of questions does tuning the machine off to go pee screw up the timer and reset me back?

No. The problem is the number of days with no usage: The software is factoring in those days as 0 usage days, and that negatively affects the usage average.

You wrote:

I looked at my logs which I haven't done in quite sometime because like I said I am a seasoned CPAPer and the 30 day number was 18 and my average hours were 3:45, then I remember I had the worst upper respiratory infection at the beginning of the month which the CPAP just blew into my congested nose so I couldn't wear it for 4-6 days then my wife got it and I could sleep listening to her cough all night so I spent 3-4 nights on the couch.

So you remember up to 10 days where you didn't use the machine at all. Since the machine reports that you only have 18 days of non-compliance, that means there are at least two other days with less than 4 hours of usage.

And you average between 5.5 and 7 hours of usage on a "normal" night. So here's what the usage numbers might look like:

• 18*6 (guessing that most days when you are compliant, you have around 6 hours of usage)
  + 2*3.5 (two days with some usage, but < 4 hours of usage)
  + 10*0 (the 10 days with no usage caused by the head cold)
  = 115 hours of usage in the last 30 days.

So that means the average usage per day is 115/30 = 3.8 hours, which is a bit longer than 3:45

I slept a straight 6.5 last night and it didn't add a day to my 30 day log it stayed at 18, should of gone to 19. Why didn't it?

The 30 day log is the LAST 30 days. If you used the machine for > 4 hours on the night that happened 30 days ago, you're replacing one "full compliance" day with another. And that's why the number didn't go up.

To make it explicit: If the usage for the last 32 days what is shown in the table below, then the reported #days compliant in last 30 days also is as shown:

• Days 33-64 all compliant with > 4 hours of usage
  32: > 4 hours 30/30 compliant based on days 32-61
  31: > 4 hours 30/30 compliant based on days 31-60
  30: > 4 hours 30/30 compliant based on days 30-59
  29: > 4 hours 30/30 compliant based on days 29-58
  28: > 4 hours 30/30 compliant based on days 28-57
  27: > 4 hours 30/30 compliant based on days 27-56
  26: > 4 hours 30/30 compliant based on days 26-55
  25: 0 hours due to head cold 29/30 compliant based on days 25-54
  24: 0 hours due to head cold 28/30 compliant based on days 24-53
  23: 0 hours due to head cold 27/30 compliant based on days 23-52
  22: 0 hours due to head cold 26/30 compliant based on days 22-51
  21: 0 hours due to head cold 25/30 compliant based on days 21-50
  20: 0 hours due to head cold 24/30 compliant based on days 20-49
  19: 0 hours due to wife's head cold 23/30 compliant based on days 19-48
  18: 0 hours due to wife's head cold 22/30 compliant based on days 18-47
  17: 0 hours due to wife's head cold 21/30 compliant based on days 17-46
  16: 0 hours due to wife's head cold 20/30 compliant based on days 16-45
  15: > 4 hours 20/30 compliant based on days 15-44
  14: > 4 hours 20/30 compliant based on days 14-43
  13: < 4 hours 19/30 compliant based on days 13-42
  12: > 4 hours 19/30 compliant based on days 12-41
  11: > 4 hours 19/30 compliant based on days 11-40
  10: < 4 hours 18/30 compliant based on days 10-39
  9: > 4 hours 18/30 compliant based on days 9-38
  8: > 4 hours 18/30 compliant based on days 8-37
  7: > 4 hours 18/30 compliant based on days 7-36
  6: > 4 hours 18/30 compliant based on days 6-35
  5: > 4 hours 18/30 compliant based on days 5-34
  4: > 4 hours 18/30 compliant based on days 4-33
  3: > 4 hours 18/30 compliant based on days 3-32
  2: > 4 hours 18/30 compliant based on days 2-31
  1: 6.5 hours (last night) 18/30 compliant based on days 1-30
  Tonight: compliance based on days "tonight through 29" so compliance will stay at 18/30 if usage* > 4
  Tonight+1: compliance based on days "tonight+1 through 28" so compliance will stay at 18/30 if usage* > 4
  Tonight+2: compliance based on days "tonight+2 through 27" so compliance will stay at 18/30 if usage* > 4
  Tonight+3: compliance based on days "tonight+3 through 26" so compliance will stay at 18/30 if usage* > 4
  Tonight+4: compliance based on days "tonight+4 through 25" so compliance will stay at 18/30 if usage* > 4
  Tonight+5; compliance based on days "tonight+5 through 25" so compliance go to 19/30 if usage* > 4
  
  * we are assuming that usage will be > 4 on all future nights in this table

As you can see, the #compliant days will NOT increase until the first non-compliant day "ages" out of the 30-day window. Under the above scenario that won't happen for several more nights.

Is there a way to get my numbers back up short of walking around with it on all day?

There's no way to get the number of compliant days to increase until the 10-day gap caused by the head cold starts to age out of the 30-day window.

As the head cold ages out of the window, the average usage per night will also go up.

My best advice is to try to demonstrate that this past month is a significant outlier. In other words, look at the data in software and demonstrate that this month is the only month in the last 12 months where the usage dropped precipitously and explain about the nasty head cold. Ask if a 90-day window could be used instead of the last 30 days. Or ask for a one-month grace period to demonstrate that you are now back to using the machine every night, all night long.

Thanks so much! This really helped me understand how it logs time.

If I checked the time after an hour nap I was worried it was counting that as my 1day amount its good to know it logs all of them together even after my late night bathroom break. Hopefully by the end of the month Ill be able to pull my averages up by adding full days like normal. It has the potential to really mess me up.


Thanks
TJ

I'm thinking that if they won't do the 90 days, you could show them the last year in Sleepyhead (statistics page) that shows how you complied month to month. If you show compliance, then I would think they would extend the requirement to allow you a new 30 days window. My guess is that they don't really warn you so you can't fake a bunch of data, but it's pretty hard to fake a year's worth of record. My family member's Respironics data card shows data all the way back to when he bought the machine in May last year.

Is there a way that I can read the data on the card myself?? This is all new to me.

baydogs wrote:Is there a way that I can read the data on the card myself?? This is all new to me.

Get Sleepyhead software and you should be able to.
According to your post, you have a System One Auto BiPAP, which is fully data capable and compatible with Sleepyhead.


Den

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Wulfman... wrote:

baydogs wrote:Is there a way that I can read the data on the card myself?? This is all new to me.

Get Sleepyhead software and you should be able to.
According to your post, you have a System One Auto BiPAP, which is fully data capable and compatible with Sleepyhead.


Den

.

In addition to what he said, you need an SD card reader. About $10 at Best Buy. Walmart, Target, perhaps even Walgreens carry them.