Advance Understnding of Machine reports?

[racprops]

This site has been a great help with the basics of working on the problem of Sleep Apnea.

I have gotten pretty close BUT I cannot go any farther blind.

I really need to understand ALL the readout I am getting and to have some idea what would I want to see in them, and best some suggestion of what I should try to do for each.

Has anyone ever put a machine on someone whom has NO sleep apnea??

In other words what is normal?

Rich

[Popriv]

I'm in the same situation as you, Rich.
Want to understand more of the sleepyhead graphs....

Steve

[racprops]

Here is some of the BIG Questions...

First is that I seem to have good numbers..yesterday my AHI was .80...

Yet I was not having a good day, I want and need to be a Energizer Bunny, and I should be but I was about 70% Zombie. I was unable to work...mind just was not sharp.

So something is not right.

And a number of readings I get from Sleepyhead seem to show something going on.

I fear that I am getting arousals that even thou I seem to be getting good sleep by the numbers I am not getting restorative sleep.

I wake up two to four times each night.

I guess I need a real Doctor's Sleep Apnea Training Manual..I think the answer might be in the readout but cannot really read them.

Like this:



Like what does all that gray in the flow rate mean??

And look at how the Mask Pressure is displayed...what is up with those two??

My take on my Pulse Rate and O2 numbers I think are great..o2 stays above 90% all night...

But then there is these:



It looks like a good read out I even have got my Breathing Rate down to a new low of 15 BPM by using a fixed BR OF 15BPM (used to be as high as 26 last year and was 17BPM just a couple of weeks ago..and to night I am reading even lower to 13 BPM, which is lower than my fixed rate of 14BPM...is that good or bad??



But note the first sleep cycle is up and the second sleep cycle hit the bottom and stays there...is that good or bad??

Next and nearly last this:



I cannot make heads or tails of these readouts...good or bad...The Tidal Volume Good or bad, looks funny...

Note the sleep sessions...what does Blue mean and the yellow in the sessions??

Last is this:



See how weird the Insp.Time and Exp.Time look...it looks wrong some how...is it??

So even with great AHI numbers it looks like something is going on..something that is preventing me from real restorative sleep..BUT I cannot tell what..

This is where we go deep into understanding what these readouts are trying to tell us...

IF I was the E.Bunny I would not question all of this but in spite of what seems to be great numbers I am still tired most of the time..

And if I did not have E.Bunny days every once in a while I would not believe they were possible BUT I DO have those E.Bunny days so it is possible...

And I hope I can make them happen more often.

Help me and you could really help all.

Thanks for your interest and help.

Rich

[Sleepster]

I really need to understand ALL the readout I am getting and to have some idea what would I want to see in them, and best some suggestion of what I should try to do for each.

In my opinion you need to start with the basics and work your way up. Once you get past the basics a lot of the data is not relevant, and you have to sort that out one issue at a time.

First and foremost is compliance. You must use your machine every time you sleep, all the time you're sleeping.

Has anyone ever put a machine on someone whom has NO sleep apnea??

In other words what is normal?

AHI of less than 5 is considered normal.

Yet I was not having a good day, I want and need to be a Energizer Bunny, and I should be but I was about 70% Zombie. I was unable to work...mind just was not sharp.

That's just part of the recovery process. As you adapt to CPAP therapy the number of good days will increase in frequency. There is no magic bullet. Exercise and diet help.

I don't see any problems in your data. Were you diagnosed with complex sleep apnea?

Have you met with a sleep doctor who has reviewed your data?

[PhyllisBalboa]

Racprops, how long have you been using your machine and for about how many hours a night? What kind of diagnosis did you get, such as moderate obstructive, severe complex, central, etc?

I'm still new to this (5 months), but for me the most important numbers are the AHI (being below 5), the leak rate, the hours used per night, and the kinds of events. If those are good, and the kinds of events match your machine's purpose, then I think it's a just a matter of keep doing it so that your body can recover. Sometimes I can clean the house top to bottom and sometimes it's old movies all day long. It took decades for the apnea to sideline me, and now I'm giving the treatment a least a year or two to heal me up. But really, it will be a lifetime issue, and I'll always have my machine buddy.

The other numbers are interesting, and I'd love to read what people say about them, and maybe they'll notice sometime unusual in your case, but the most interesting thing will be how your body recovers. Notice the small changes. Those will all add up over time. You might not turn out to be an energizer bunny in the long run, but maybe something even better.

[racprops]

Thanks for your replies.

I have been using for over a year, I started in March 2013.

And I have been 100% compliant.

As I said I have mainly good numbers, specially now that I switched off the Automatic and use a set Breath Rate.

I had a sleep study in 2013 with two nights titration and was told I have Complex apnea, and will need a ASV machine. and was told I some basic things.

But I fired him from be a control freak and foe NOT allowing my input into my treatment and for being a jackass.

I found out on my own that I had positional apnea as well and if I sleep on my back it is not pretty.

I think things should be better..

Rich

[Sleepster]

I think things should be better..

Better to tell yourself that things could be better.

Because they could be worse.

I'm approaching 3 years of use and still noticing improvements. It took me a long time to get in this condition and it's taking a long time to recover. But things are so much better than they used to be.

Keep in mind that the only thing the machine can do for you is help you breathe while you're asleep.

I strongly suggest you find a new doctor who is willing to have you cooperate in your own treatment.

[racprops]

Thing is I can wake up and feel fine and think OK this will be a good day and two to three hours later cannot go though a door with out hitting the frame and be so muddled I cannot think...so bad old TV shows I have watched before are hard to follow...

Rich

[PaulaO2]

This site has been a great help with the basics of working on the problem of Sleep Apnea.

I have gotten pretty close BUT I cannot go any farther blind.

I really need to understand ALL the readout I am getting and to have some idea what would I want to see in them, and best some suggestion of what I should try to do for each.

Has anyone ever put a machine on someone whom has NO sleep apnea??

In other words what is normal?

Rich

Normal is an AHI less than 5 without the help of a CPAP.

So what you would see is in the flow rate graph would like all pretty and even. Maybe a few bumps here and there as the person dreams or sleeps on their back.

Flow limitation would be flat except for maybe back sleeping, there'd be a little bump or two. More if the person is overweight or in a bad neck angle, etc.

If you have a spouse or an off spring who is willing to be a guinea pig, bribe them into napping for a while with the CPAP on. Lower the pressure fairly low, probably to 5 just so they don't feel smothered. Create a new profile for SH so the data does not get mixed. And of course, if you are still in your compliance period, don't do it because it would mess up your data on the machine.

[Peter_C]

Just food for thought? I am an old-timer, when all machines were bricks. I knew nothing except that CPAP changed my life completely, and took around 10 years to heal my heart issues caused by OSA.

You can see by my join date that I am very new to *knowledge*, as I knew nothing beyond the very real need to use my dream machine every moment I slept.

Due to other issues in my life, I am in pain MGNT, and the pain meds are now causing me many centrals, and a new titration showed I need an ASV machine (that I just got yesterday). I too would like to learn all the answers to the questions you have posed. But I know from my past experience, that the damage does not happen overnight, and neither will the healing. As others have said, compliance, good sleep habits, etc are critical.

One question for you? In the sample given in this page, assuming you wore the mask 100% of your sleep time, you only got 4hrs and 56mins of sleep? Am thinking I'd be kinda zonked if that is all I got too. Are you getting naps during the day?