First nights data after years of APAP

[Osiris357]

“Returning to an earlier question in this thread, I am still puzzled by what constitutes a separate CPAP session in OSCAR.”

Between 12 noon and 12 noon the next day constitutes a day for the machine. Say you wake up at 6am. If you only turned the machine on once that previous day that one session.

If you take a nap say between 2 and 4 then turn you machine on for the night at say 9 that’s 2 sessions

If you do the above and get up to use the bathroom 2 times that would be 4 sessions. Between noon and noon the next day however many times you turn the machine on and off that’s the number of sessions you will see

[sopherFellow]

I think the earlier poster answered my question as:

If I get up to pee and get the machine back on in less than 60 seconds, it's still the same session.

If I get up to pee and the machine is off for more than 60 seconds, then it is a separate session when it starts up again.

[Osiris357]

Ok I was unaware of that cause I’ve never turned it back on in less than a min. But that aside if you shut off the machine and turn it back on you now have 2 sessions, turn it off again 3 and so on and so on. Unless it’s for less than a min. That a very fast get out of bed asleep, pee, walk back to bed half asleep in less than 60 secs bathroom trip

[sheepless]

Osiris, I can't make a bathroom call in less than a minute but there are other reasons that combining sessions is not desirable. for example, separate sleep sessions is a useful indicator for those of us with fragmented sleep. when I awaken abruptly, which is more than often than not, like in some distress, I've usually turned the machine off by the time I'm aware of it. as treatment slowly improves, I'm better able to resist getting up & wandering around the house than I used to be, so I'm getting better at minimizing the duration of these awake times. otoh, when I awaken gradually, I'm often able to roll over & go back to sleep, but if I find myself lying awake for more than a minute or two I'll mask off to document the awakening. sometimes it's hard to estimate a minute without waking oneself even further. all manageable as is, but would be simpler if oscar didn't combine sessions. it would also make it easier and more accurate to manually calculate sleep efficiency.

[sopherFellow]

Agreed that is a very quick turnaround but I was thinking like:

I am wide awake so if I lay here awake for very long I will probably get a bunch of junk falling asleep stuff in my data.  I should start another session so that I can eliminate this junk stuff if it happens.   So I was looking for the min time I could turn off the machine and get a new session.    Seems it's a minute!

[Osiris357]

You can turn off the sessions you don’t want to see at that moment by clicking them in the bottom left hand corner. You’ll see small bars with the bigger ones having the length of the session inside them. 

Click on them and you’ll see them leave the waveform charts. Click them again and they return

I do the same when I have sessions where I’m awake the entire time. When you turn off sessions it also changes your AHI

[sopherFellow]

I remain grateful to this board for helping me learn to control my apnea.   I thought I'd check in a year later to show that controlling it is possible.

I had gone to the use of a cervical collar (continuing) and a WoodyKnows backpack to keep me off my back.   The default strap configuration for the WoodyKnows was cutting into my side and causing welts so badly that after wearing it for a week, I'd have to take a week off from wearing it in order for the welts to heal.   I had reconfigured the belts into an X-pattern, which helped minimize the welts, but which did not provide enough stability to keep the backpack securely in place.    I ended up removing the belts from the WoodyKnows and sewing it onto a t-shirt.   After optimizing the placement on the t-shirt (as close as possible to the left side, since I sleep on my left side),  I had good resistance to rolling on my back with no welts since the pressure was spread over a much larger area.  Using this configuration, I have had excellent results - for December my average AHI was 0.41, January average AHI was 0.33 and so far for February average AHI is 0.35.

So, bottom line, don't be discouraged, keep adjusting to see what works for you individually, and you too can get an undisturbed night of sleep and feel much better than when you were struggling to breathe all night long!

Thanks again people!  It's been a process, but it's been worth the effort!

[Sleeprider]

The use of positional apnea aids continues to be very common on the forum. Your follow-up after a year is appreciated, and may help those dealing with those issues today see how lasting benefits can result from the use of a soft cervical collar. Which one do you use?

[sopherFellow]

Sleeprider,

I have been using a cervical collar which I already owned from my positional vertigo treatment.    However, it is very similar to this one:
Moderator Action: Link Removed, see MediChoice Serpentine Cervical Collar on Amazon







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