Periodic breathing

I have been on cpap for 15 days now and have only had 2 bad nights with AHI levels around 2.89, I have since been doing good the last few nights , I have been looking at my sleepyhead data and noticed the worst night I had there was a large spike of PB-0.98 ,the rest of the days there were no Data or PB. can anyone tell me if that is what caused a bad night ? I have read the glossary term and do not understand it fully .

A short period of PB is nothing to worry about. Did you have leaks around that time? In my case, I have PB occasionally, usually around big leaks according to SleepyHead (but not on the machine). There will also be occasional "bad" nights when it is impossible to know exactly what caused the "problem." If you feel good, and your data are good most of the time, keep doing whatever it is you are doing. It is the averages that are more important than single night events. What is your 2-week AHI? PB? Leak rate?

AHI-1.12 LEAK AVERAGE
leak average 22.50
and 0.98 for only one day
Thanks sleepytoo2 !

That amount of PB is insignificant and rare besides. You can disregard it.

Bad nights happen to all of us and we don't always have an idea what caused it.

One percent does seem like a pretty small amount. I occasionally report 1 or 2 PB a night. I see plenty of of PB like stuff that doesn't register on the machine. I have desaturated to 88% and the CPAP machine didn't indicate a problem. I think every hose head should have an Oximeter.

This shows the reported PB dropping my O2 from 96% to 91%.


A close-up of the BP event.


My SpO2 hung out around 93% for about an hour waffling between 94% and 89% more or less in time with the waxing a waning of my breathing.




Ninety three percent is not too terribly awful. Even 89% for a short period isn't that bad. But the CPAP machine doesn't recognize the breathing pattern as deviant reporting low AHI and PBI, giving the user a "warm and fuzzy feeling".

BasementDwellingGeek you say in additional comments that you use your own software. Is this something you came up with yourself?

squid13 wrote:BasementDwellingGeek you say in additional comments that you use your own software. Is this something you came up with yourself?

Correct. JediMark, creator of SleepyHead, posted info explaining the files generated by the PRS1 machines. viewtopic.php?f=1&t=55722&p=586193&hili ... 95#p586193 I was looking for a vehicle to learn C# about the same time I discovered I could get info about what the machine was doing. It's easier to learn something when one has a vested interest. I started decoding the waveforms, then added the events. Later I added Zeo sleep data and most recently CMS-50E Oximetry data. I am currently toying with respiration rate. Once I get that sorted out will come tidal flows.

I wish you great success in what your doing and maybe one day you'll come up with a great program for viewing the PRS1 data card. I use SleepyHead and Encore Basic. Encore Basic leaves a lot to be desired.

squid13 wrote:I use SleepyHead and Encore Basic. Encore Basic leaves a lot to be desired.

So why use Encore Basic? I abandoned it a while ago when SH became good enough to give me more info than EB. I see no reason to use it now.

Thanks , Everybody for your response . very technical data I am trying to understand , but I think in time I will be able to digest it , at least I am not to worry so much ...

BasementDwellingGeek, your graphs are meaningless to me unless you add graph's headings and explanations.
On what basis you regard the graphs to show BP?

your graphs are meaningless to me unless you add graph's headings and explanations.

I can see that it is not obvious form the displayed info. The green panel is flow rate, the horizontal lines represent +/- 25 lpm.
The pink panel is SpO2. Due to sloppy coding/ laziness on my part the SpO2 labels are below the line the represent not on top as is usual.
The first detail is a waveform the the machine tagged as PB. Subsequent details show a waxing and waning pattern not technically PB, but sufficient to cause desaturations, hence the term PB like.
The point I was trying to make is that low AHI and/or BPI doesn't tell the whole story. Other things not reported by the machine do affect our health.

maybe one day you'll come up with a great program for viewing the PRS1 data card

I don't think I'll ever be in the league of SleepyHead, I'm just a hack trying to make the most of new lifelong companion, CPAP.