Do I need a sleep technician to set up my machine?

Hi! Newbie here, I was diagnosed with sleep apnea several years ago and have been using a cpap machine since. About a year ago I bought a Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset online from the USA (I live in Australia). I was visiting my endocrinologist today and he asked if I had ever had the machine calibrated by a sleep technician. Honestly, when I got the machine I just pulled it from the box, connected all the bits and pieces, filled the humidifier, plugged it and jumped into bed. Did I do anything wrong? My machine says that I get 0.5-1 events per hour. People talk about setting min. and max. air pressure, ramp time etc. Do I need to visit a sleep technician to check/set my settings? Do I use the SleepyHead software to set the settings up myself? I really thought that Autoset meant that the machine would set itself up

Thanks in advance for your advice!

The machine can't set itself - what pressures are you using now? If you follow the Sleepyhead info here you can post a couple of nights and people will advise further so you won't need a tech, but even they would use the settings prescribed by your doctor, though with SH, we can probably get you going properly.

Best bet is to get SleepyHead, import your data, post it here, and then adjust as needed. Sounds like the machine is treating your OSA well, but most likely if it's set to factory defaults, the APAP range is pressures 4 - 20 cmh2o, which is almost never ideal for several reasons.

Sometimes the factory default settings work out just fine for some people....you might be one of them.
Maybe your machine never has to go above 6 or 7 cm to hold your airway open so that 4 cm default from the factory setting works just fine for you.

But to answer your question...no, you don't need anyone but yourself to change anything on your machine.
https://www.respshop.com/manuals/ResMed ... %20her.pdf
Download the manual and read it. In the manual are the instructions for doing the secret handshake to get you into the clinical setup manual so you can change stuff if you want to.

Using SleepyHead lets you see the detailed results but there is nothing in SH that lets you make changes to anything in your machine.
If you want to make changes you have to do it manually.

Welcome to the forum.

You seem to be doing fine with under 1 an hour and out of the box is probably 4 and 20. (Not the pie)
As well as an endo, seeing a respiritrist now and then is a good idea. You can get a machine adjustment sleep test free, on a public hospital lab list. Or your private hospital insurance.
If you download sleepyhead and get some charts up, the forum will help you fine tune. It could be just moving the min pressure 4, up a bit.

Yes to what Pugsy said.
Doing it yourself is almost ALWAYS the best way,
but by your numbers, you may need to do nothing.

Happynapper wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:42 am

I was visiting my endocrinologist today and he asked if I had ever had the machine calibrated by a sleep technician.

now, that's a laugh.

Happynapper wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:42 am

Honestly, when I got the machine I just pulled it from the box, connected all the bits and pieces, filled the humidifier, plugged it and jumped into bed. Did I do anything wrong? My machine says that I get 0.5-1 events per hour.

I suppose it's possible a "sleep technician" could get someone's AHI down to that, but it's exceedingly rare that it happens.

Happynapper wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:42 am

People talk about setting min. and max. air pressure, ramp time etc. Do I need to visit a sleep technician to check/set my settings?

Nope

Happynapper wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:42 am

Do I use the SleepyHead software to set the settings up myself?

Yup!

Happynapper wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:42 am

I really thought that Autoset meant that the machine would set itself up

The machine is kinda stupidly trusting, it's programmed to trust whatever the person set it up to to know what they were doing, so all night long, it raises pressure in response to events, and then starts dropping the pressure to get back down to the set minimum.

If the minimum is too low, that causes an all night long cycle of events, pressure up, pressure down, events... repeat.

Tweaking the min pressure up smooths out the roller coaster and results in better sleep.

Happynapper wrote: ↑

Wed Mar 13, 2019 4:42 am

About a year ago I bought a Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset

My machine says that I get 0.5-1 events per hour.

Go play golf.

If your AHI is .5 to 1.0, on the original setup sounds like a blind squirrel found a Nut! seldom happens that way. Jim