Sleepyhead

Okay everyone- have a new machine- Airsense 10 auto (thanks for the reviews) and the most COMFORTABLE mask ever, the Philips Respironics Dreamwear nasal mask- hardly feel I have it on!! I have the Res Med app for reviewing my sleep data, and it says that the mask is a good fit, (no leaks?) but I am reading that Sleepyhead is more accurate- is the Myair for Res med good enough or would you recommend Sleepyhead? (I can't seem to download it on my mac!)


Plus, as much as i LOVE my machine and mask, I have very dry throat every morning- I think my humidifier is set to 4 - should I turn it up?

My Air won't give you much more information than you get off of your machine. Most of use Sleepy head to monitor our treatment. You can see exactly when each event happens which makes it easy to weed out the sleep/wake junk.

How do you know you're not mouth breathing overnight, losing the Cpap air that way, and possibly needing a full face mask instead?

Hi there- I don't know if I am losing air out my mouth... I had a full face mask and couldn't stand it. That's why I love this Dreamwear one so much- barely know I have it on. How WOULD one know if they sleep with their mouth open?

Dry mouth can mean mouth breathing but can also mean any number of other things.
Mouth breathing will show up as a leak on the leak graphs ...leak is leak no matter the cause.
If your leak numbers are within acceptable limits then if (big IF) you are doing any mouth breathing it isn't enough to negatively impact the therapy as in the machine can't do it's job. It can compensate for some leak and it doesn't matter the cause as long as it isn't really large and really prolonged.

Now mask movement also shows up as leak on the leak graphs...so does mouth breathing...can't tell the difference just by looking at the graphs. Remember leak is leak no matter what the cause.

Even if you do some mouth breathing that qualifies for really big leak...maybe it's 15 minutes out of the entire night.
I gladly take 15 minutes of large leak with my nasal pillow mask over dealing with a full face mask all night long.
If I have 7 hours of sleep and 15 minutes of really large leak...that means I had 6 hours and 45 minutes of not large leak and 15 minutes of less than stellar leak management isn't the end of the world.
Besides...it's not like full face masks never leak. All masks have mask movement risk leaks.

Look at your leak data first...if it seems a bit high then we dig deeper and decide just how bad the leaks are and if they need extra special measures.
15 to 30 minutes of large leak for me....I really don't care as long as I sleep right through it. I have been the chin strap, tape, full face mask route...and all those options disturb my sleep more than 30 minutes of large leak disturbs my sleep. Guess which one I choose?

Thank you for the advice! Only problem is the software that my machine uses tells me I have a great mask fit- doesn't display "leak"
I have no idea if I sleep with my mouth open, or not!

I'd love to use sleepyhead, but, for some reason, my mac won't download it..

Exactly what ResMed machine model are you using? Model name is clearly shown on the face of the machine.
There should be more data available besides "mask fit" and a smiley face.
Do you have any numbers relating to that mask fit.

My Air should also show a leak number somewhere. It should be what we call a 95% leak number. If it's below 24 L/min then if you are doing any mouth breathing it sure isn't very much and I wouldn't worry about it. If it's more than 24 we might need to do some detective work to figure out just what is going on and is it really much of a problem or not.

It takes very little mouth breathing to dry out the mouth...I can get some pretty nasty dry mouth from mouth breathing for maybe 5 minutes (and I can see it on the software report). Dry mouth doesn't always mean that a person is spending the entire night mouth breathing. Nor does it mean that the entire night's therapy is in the toilet. Now it might be in the toilet but only for the period of time in really large leak. The rest of the night is fine.

You could try increasing the humidity and see if it helps or not. Generally what goes up your nose doesn't really impact the mouth all that much but heck...it's worth trying and I know a few people who did it and they said it helps. I think it probably helped by maybe decreasing the mouth breathing more than the moisture going up the nose makes it into the mouth but whatever reason...if it helps, it helps and its certainly worth trying.

Why won't your Mac let you download SleepyHead? Is it a safety permissions thing because they don't recognize the software or author?
We have lots of people using the Mac version of SleepyHead without issues.

Is your machine the AirSense 10 AutoSet or the AutoSet for Her?

It has additional information available on the LCD screen but you have to make a little change in the clinical setup menu so that it shows up on the LCD screen sleep report.

There's a setting called "Essentials" and the default from the factory is for "Usage" which is just some summary numbers but if you change it to "Plus" then you get AHI and leak and pressure numbers show up on the LCD screen.
Leak and Pressure are what we call 95% number which just mean you were at OR BELOW that number for 95% of the night. The "or below" part is real important but people often forget that part of the definition.

Don't know about the clinical set up menu area?
The manual explains it all and how to get there.
https://sleep.tnet.com/home/files/resme ... -guide.pdf

Hi Pugsy- Thanks for all the info! My machine is the resmed airsense autoset (not for her- it's black)- It shows mask fit with a smily face but not all the other things you mention so I should go into the clinical settings as you suggest. I don't know why my mac won't let me download Sleepyhead! It gets as far as the cute little sheep icon, then says something like "unknown developer" and won't go any further....

SleepyHead is safe to use.
There is a way to tell your Mac that you know the software and you want to go ahead with it.
Someone with a Mac will have to tell you how. I don't use a Mac but I have seen a similar warning from Windows and I just tell it "that's okay I want it anyway".

Up to you.

Yes...go ahead and make the change from
Essentials ...Usage
to
Essentials...Plus
and at least see the extra detail available from the machine.

If your AHI is nice and low and leak numbers are nice and low and you are feeling good and sleeping good then maybe the data available on the LCD screen is sufficient for your needs.