[CPAP] LeeMan's Therapy and Questions - Device usage showing gaps

[SarcasticDave94]

The charts did post so that's a bit of a win. You may be better served with F12 screenshot for Windows or Fn + F12 Mac. This will Auto format to help get the most needful on the attachment.

I do see high flow limits presented, indicates you night want EPR 3, which in with needs Min pressure 7.

Occasional higher leak rates.

The other thing to consider is standard response instead of soft.

[HalfAsleep]

Those empty gaps may be hours when hour mask is so leaky, your unit doesn’t sense you’re on the other end of the hose. Otherwise, the unit is off for some reason. Or, your mouth dropped open, and the unit was sending air out through your mouth and into the ether. It would soon shut off, in that case, assuming you’re AWOL. But…you do have an observable problem with leaks! Also with settings, but that’s not my skill set.

Those are big items, before you get to the runny nose thing (there’s a chance those adjustments might calm your nose down). Does your mouth get super dry? Are you sleeping on a stack of pillows? Does your face go like jello in the night, and the mask can’t morph along with it?

[LeeMan88]

Thanks

I am using a pillows mask and yes, I sometimes does hear hissing and it wakes me. What you have is a day with gaps but other days are fine i.e without gaps.

So I don't know what I should be doing as mask seems to work most of the time. I'll see if someone knows more about settings.

I do appreciate your response on my issues and hope my nose stops dripping soon.

[Sleeptechmaster]

Your mouth leak is too high. Your  AHI shows low but your mouth leak is interrupting REM which is affecting your sleep quality and daytime benefit. 
When people go into REM, mouth leak is a lot of times increased due to the paralysis of muscles.

You can see toward the end of the night you go into REM sleep and your pressure is hitting maximum but your leak is also out of control which will cause arousals and disrupt the effectiveness of your pressures. It is still showing many apneas during that period. 
You need to try a chinstrap or a full face style mask. 
Mouth leaks can add to the amount of times you are waking up in the night. You may not notice all of these due to quickly falling asleep after these events. The mind does not remember about 5 seconds prior to falling asleep (which is why you can never remember the initial point when you fall asleep). Between those apneas and mask leaks causing arousal your REM stage and other stages are being interrupted.

[Sleeptechmaster]

Your leak is out of control which is probably waking you causing you to move the mask off.

[OpalRose]

Have you always worn a nasal pillow mask?  Notice the spikey areas on the leak graph?  This indicates mask movement.  The flatter top areas indicate mouth breathing.  

It's important to get leaks under control.  Try a larger or smaller size nasal pillow as you may have an incorrect fit.  You may have to move to a full face mask or hybrid mask if you're unable to control this.  

The gaps are more than likely you removing the mask.  If you stay with a nasal pillow mask, you may have to use mouth tape, or find another means to keep your mouth from falling open at night.  

Optimal settings play an important role in good treatment.  A low AHI doesn't always indicate optimal treatment.  

If you are able, make these changes to your settings:

Set minimum pressure at 7cm.  (This will enable EPR 3 to fully work.)
Set EPR at 3. (This not only helps with breathing out against the pressure, but helps with high Flow Limitation, Hypopneas and Reras, and may help with leaking.)
Set your maximum pressure to 15cm.  (This will help with runaway pressure increases due to FL)

Repost after a day or two. Please use the format for Organizing charts in my signature line. Showing us the daily page from OSCAR is much more helpful. Always include the entire left sidebar.

[OpalRose]

LeeMan88,

I merged your two threads into one. If you could keep your graphs and questions in this thread, it helps others to see what has already been suggested and tried without repeating.

Thanks!

[LeeMan88]

[LeeMan88]

Hello

As a new user, I wanted to thank all the people who contributed a response to my questions. I thought I would provide an update

1. Re: Gaps - seems that this could have been related to leakage from my pillow mask.
2. Re: runny nose - I moved from my pillow mask to a face mask. Leakage has significantly reduced and my runny rose has finally gone away. Tried all the nasal sprays etc etc but turns out mask was the answer.

So far, so good. Now my cpap journey continues.

Thank you again to all