Mask on, mask off, how does my machine know?

I'm a total CPAP newbie, having had my F&P HC608 for just on a week now. I know that the only data available is "compliance", but I've had a look at it and I can't understand what it really means.

The two figures available on the display are "Total hours of operation" and "Average compliance hours per night" (i.e. with mask on). I understand that until there are a lot more observations, the average is going to fluctuate quite wildly, and it has been. I'm still getting used to my CPAP so that doesn't help much either.

Now, the manual says that total hours of operation figure includes any hours of operation with mask off, but there are no sensors on the mask, so what criteria does the machine use to determine whether the mask is on or off? Also how does it determine what constitutes a "night"? If I turn the machine off for a while, is that counted as two short nights, thereby skewing the average unfairly?

I should probably be more concerned with whether or not I am getting decent sleep, but this data situation is somewhat puzzling. As it happens, I am sleeping a little better, but more importantly right now, Mrs. Blubrick is sleeping a whole lot better.

With the mask off, the machine can blow its hardest and still not raise the pressure in the system. It can detect that.

Your breathing pattern is noted by the machine (if not, how would it help you), and of course if your mask was off, you wouldn't be breathing into the machine and nothing would register. A night is usually ~ 4 hours as far as the machine/compliance goes.

The machine is really looking at a day of 24 hours and a compliant day is one in which you used the machine (mask on) for at least 4 hours. Getting up in the night and shutting off the machine is not a problem as long as you get your 4 hours of mask on time during the 24 hour period.

Good luck,
TerryB

OK everyone, thanks for all your input. I understand how the machine arrives at those numbers, and I think I've decided now that it doesn't really matter that much to me. I'll just concentrate on getting used to sleeping while hooked up to this contraption and look forward to one day waking up feeling really rested.

jdm2857 wrote:With the mask off, the machine can blow its hardest and still not raise the pressure in the system. It can detect that.

Is that why my APAP is 10X louder than my CPAP machine (with mask off)??