Sleep Arousals - how to measure and improve?

Tom, I think Robysue's advice to not obsess over the wake-ups is excellent and I whole heartedly agree, but since you asked...
With my Quattro FFM, I removed all the forehead pieces from the mask which left a "stem" sticking up. I used a rubber band to hold a velcro strap to the top of the stem. The velcro was about 10 inches long and 1/2 inch wide, centered on the stem.
I discarded the Zeo headband and fastened the Zeo sensor to the headgear where the mask forehead piece would have normally been. This completed the top loop of the headgear and held the sensor against the forehead.
I fastened the top of the mask to the headgear with the velcro, the ends of which fell onto the headgear just above my ears. I attached the bottom of the mask to the headgear normally with the clips. The top of the mask, the circular part of the stem, rode just in front of the Zeo transmitter/sensor and the tension could be adjusted with the velcro.
This sounds a little complicated, but it was really quite easy. I'm sure you could rig something similar with your Ultra Mirage, but it's possible you may be able to just tilt the forehead piece back far enough so that it has enough room to ride against the Zeo transmitter/sensor worn normally. I'm pretty sure others have worn masks with forehead pieces together with a Zeo headband without modifying the mask.
Jay

Pretty clever, Jay.

So you basically imbedded the ZEO sensors into the mask forehead bracket... slick.

I'll look it all over when it arrives and figger something like that out.

Do the sensors require a paste for conductivity like the old 70's brain wave machines? Probably not.

I plan to order the Bedside unit. Hopefully this will do everything I need. I see the $99 slim version with Bluetooth, but I don't have a smart pad. So the $149 bedside unit is the correct choice, right?

I will not to obsess over the wakeups after learning that they are sometimes a natural occurance and many are beneficial. I will cool it and simply watch the sleep patterns on the ZEO and go from there. The leaks are most likely my biggest arousal gremlin now and will be addressed over time.

T

If I was an ASV user then I would go over the following thread, post by post:

ASV users: the everything ASV thread.


Link:

viewtopic.php?f=1&t=65791&st=0&sk=t&sd= ... =asv+users

The Sheikh wrote:Do the sensors require a paste for conductivity like the old 70's brain wave machines? Probably not.

Nope. The sensors are made from metalized fabric, 3 pads, left, center, right, on the headband. I use a Quattro FX, which does not have the forehead brace thing-a-ma-jigger.

The Sheikh wrote:I will not to obsess over the wakeups after learning that they are sometimes a natural occurance and many are beneficial. I will cool it and simply watch the sleep patterns on the ZEO and go from there. The leaks are most likely my biggest arousal gremlin now and will be addressed over time.

Sounds like a plan.

The Sheikh wrote:I plan to order the Bedside unit. Hopefully this will do everything I need. I see the $99 slim version with Bluetooth, but I don't have a smart pad. So the $149 bedside unit is the correct choice, right?

I think the Bedside unit is the way to go. It offers a little more than the mobile version, like the ability (with modification) to monitor brain waves in real time or directly download data to a PC. Of course, it's not quite as portable.
No paste required. Zeo was toying with self adhesive sensors, but I haven't seen anything about them for a long time.

Jay

OK Jay and Max -

I'll order the ZEO tonight. I know using it will get old, just like the oximeter, but then again, now I KNOW my O2 stays in the 90's all night. I'm thinking the ZEO will start me on a path to better sleep hygiene in general. I'm reading thru their website sleep articles now.

AVI: Thanks for the links about ASV! I read through only 10 pages so far and looks like the board was humming about ASV last year. I see most are using the PR ASV.

I was surprised that a few folks were having problems getting their hyponeas (and centrals) down below AHI ~10, even with an ASV. Whereas, some hit zero right away. So depending on our individual problems, it is not an easy task to do. I'll keep reading through the posts - and tnx again for pointing them out.

Tom

There are a lot of really good posts for this topic. I've learned a lot about arousals.

I use SleepyHead - cuz it's simple - ResMed seems like a DOS program to me - tough to use. I see ZEO data upload-capable in S/H - this will work out OK, yes? Think I will pick one up. Thanks for the info.

At this time Sleepyhead will not work with Zeo.

Ed M.

edm_msu wrote:There are a lot of really good posts for this topic. I've learned a lot about arousals.

I use SleepyHead - cuz it's simple - ResMed seems like a DOS program to me - tough to use. I see ZEO data upload-capable in S/H - this will work out OK, yes? Think I will pick one up. Thanks for the info.

At this time Sleepyhead will not work with Zeo.

Ed M.

What version of SleepyHead are you using? I have no trouble importing my zeo data into SH 0.9.2. You do have to download the zeo data .csv file from the Zeo.com webpage before importing it into SleepyHead.

Robysue,
I've been using Zeo for over 4 months and did not know about this technique. I'll enter Zeo into Sleepyhead tonight.
Thanks for the info,
Ed M.

FWIW, I was told by my doc that much of the time, when we wake for a "bathroom break" it is really something else that has woken us and once we are awake, we feel the need to go.
I am a really light sleeper and any noise will wake me. The problem comes when it is hard to get back to sleep from these awakenings. If I wake just long enough to realize I'm barely awake, roll over and go back to sleep, it's no big deal, but a lot of times once I am awake, I am wide awake and it may be 20 minutes or a half hour before I get back to sleep again. This does start to rob one of enough sleep in a night. I don't know the answer. I slept with earplugs for a time but they make my ears really sore, even though they are soft foam.