First Nite On Auto

I've been on CPAP the last seven years with out any issues until I started losing weight. Pressures have been from 11 to 14 depending on how heavy I was at the time. After losing 32lbs since July I retested and upgraded my machine.

Auto settings from DME were set to 7 min 20 max. I set the autoflex to 1 Had a great nite the machine stayed at 7.2 for 419 min 40 min at 8 and 12 at 9

AHI was 1.2 Zero oa's .8 Hypopnea .4 CA .9 RERA

Didn't notice any mask leaks but it says Average leak was 20.0 (not sure what a good number is )

Don't know if my pressures will stay this low but last nite was sure cool> I intend to lose a total of 100lbs so it will be interesting to monitor the pressures on my journey.

Thank you to all who post here as it's here I learned about smart machines software oximeters ect

Gary

wow that sounds good. I'm wanting to try out the apap side of my machine, but afraiud sleep doc might yank it.

i'm not understanding the leaks though....what does that number mean, does that mean your mask leaked 20 times? or is there a leak scale....

happy for you though....a good night's sleep is PRICEless!

Hi June bug

Doing a little more research.....all masks leak thru the vent hole and have a spec for this number IE 28 so my 20 is probably with in spec havn't found the number for the easylife mask yet

Gary

Hi Gary,

I'm not sure about leak rates as I'm very new at this. But I read somewhere that each mask has a vent rate (not a leak rate) and that the leak rate (given in L/min) is above and beyond the vent rate. Maybe someone more experienced could clarify this. I'm also wondering if mouth breathing or "expiratory puffs" are part of the leak rate for non-full face masks.

Hi Sirca

Ya I did a little more checking and what you say is tru with regard to the masks. On my old machine set at 11 my wife would tell me I lip popped or motor boated I'll have to keep an Eye on that relying on her feedback with the new machine

Gary

Great that you are losing weight and keeping it off! Hopefully you can keep your mouth doing all that stuff by optimizing pressures. I have noticed on my APAP - the biggest issue is that the machine chases snores (or probably any noise I make). So it raises pressure when you make noise, and that increase causes you to do more of it. For some reason, I have been best able to optimize by first raising lower pressure to what seems optimum, then doing the same with lowering the upper pressure.

I have the same machine as you do and I like auto mode very much.

What i never understand is what are the pro's and con's of raising or lowering your "Flex" settings? Mine is/was set at the default of 2, but have always wondered why 3 would not be more comfortable - and if so - why would more people not do that?

Last night I had my first night with an AHI=0!, but I still experience "CPAP-nea" -i.e. - the arousals you get from wearing a mask and being hooked up to a machine. Does increasing "Flex" help this?

I am totally new to aflex the DME set mine to 3 but since I had never used it i set it to 1 to try it out. Just seemed to give me a more natural breathing I'm used to exhaling against the 11cm Theres a demo in the flex settings but I did not try it.

Gary

Jonquilo,I don't remember if you have tried straight cpap pressure. It sounds like you' may be having arousals because of the changing pressures chasing your snoring. I know my husband was very sensitive to that. He also turned Flex off after awhile when he got used to the pressure. He felt somehow the algorithm did not match his breathing pattern and did not feel as natural. Just a thought.

Soooo

I made one small change raised my min from 7 to 7.5 much more comfortable to get to sleep and then I slept for 10 hours. I can't remember the last time I slept that long

Really love this mask and machine combo I'm not having leaks and the easylife mask just feels so lite . It uses alot less water for the humidity I have mine on 4 now and no rain out all and all I just much more comfortable.

I didn't know what I was missing all those years on straight CPAP at the time I had no complaints but this set up is better

Gary

10 Hours, Wow! So how did you feel today?