First two weeks of data on an S9 from ResScan

[GeoffD]

Here are screen shots of my first two weeks using an S9. I put up last night's detailed graphs. I had a bit of a break at 3am. I went to the bathroom and my cat climbed on my chest and insisted on 15 minutes of pets before allowing me to gear up again.

When I get back to my nurse-practitioner at the Neurologist/Sleep Center in 5 weeks, I'm going to tell her I'm going to get off the constant 17 cmH20 pressure setting and start fooling with AutoSet to see if I can get away with a lower setting without increasing AHI. I'm not having comfort issues so I can live with 17 until then.

The leak graph is pretty typical of my nights though I usually don't leak as much volume.

I'm only sleeping 5 or 6 hours with the CPAP machine. I was always an 8 hour person and I'm not used to waking up as early as I have been the last two weeks. I'm trying to determine if this is the "new normal" for me. I'm supplementing this sleep with an hour or two on the sofa maybe 3 nights per week.

   

   

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[zonk]

The leak graph is pretty typical of my nights though I usually don't leak as much volume.

Even at 17, leak line is almost perfect, whats your secret?

Those couple spikes at 2.30 and 5.0 might indicate some mouth leaks, chinstrap can helps keeping mouth closed


How AutoSet works to treat your sleep apnea
http://www.resmed.com/us/en/commercial-p...toset.html

[Galactus]

I was on 18 solid using a brick. best thing I ever did was get an auto bipap, now my EPAP is down to 13-15 and my IPAP is down to 15-18. I also was great at 18, and that was what I thought. The difference now though is amazing, it feels so much better to sleep now at the lower pressure.

Good luck, feel better, sleep well. Wish you all the best.

[GeoffD]

The leak graph is pretty typical of my nights though I usually don't leak as much volume.

Even at 17, leak line is almost perfect, whats your secret?

Those couple spikes at 2.30 and 5.0 might indicate some mouth leaks, chinstrap can helps keeping mouth closed

They might indeed indicate mouth leaks. I usually don't get more than a couple per night. I'll ask for one at my office visit.

I don't have any secret. I read about the struggles of others here and I pretty much didn't have them. The first night at home, it took 4 hours to get to sleep but I adapted quickly and my AHI numbers are really strong. If I hear the nasal mask leaking, I pull the straps tighter. I used to sleep on my stomach and I've trained myself to not do that much. I'm just not used to waking up so early after ~6 hours of sleep.

[herbm]

Why only 6 hours per night? Is that all the time you have for sleep or do you sleep sometimes without the mask?

You could easily try setting your machine to APAP with a narrow range topping out at or near your current 17.

15-17 -- don't see a change then try 13-17 or some such. If 15-17 gets significantly worse, just go back to 16-17.

Generally give it about a week on each change UNLESS you see an OBVIOUSLY INEFFECTIVE difference. In such a case, I wouldn't wait to re-adjust but would make a note that the particular settings were not "fully tested" for future reference if my changes end up back in that vicinity.

If a lower minimum works, you can at some point start lowering your upper limit to first the max the machine TRIES on most nights and then nibble into the top pressures if you still want to tweak it further.

If the machine isn't reaching your maximum it really doesn't much matter what that max is UNLESS you are going to start capping the pressure actually being TRIED by the machine.

[GeoffD]

Why only 6 hours per night? Is that all the time you have for sleep or do you sleep sometimes without the mask?

Your guess is as good as mine. For decades, I normally woke up naturally between 7:00 and 7:30 with 7 to 8 hours sleep. Now, I'm waking at 5:30. I have no idea if this is my "new normal" when I sleep without having 40 apnea events per hour; or if I haven't fully adjusted to the CPAP machine; or if my body doesn't like the aggressive 17 cmh20 setting; or something else.

As I wrote in my initial post, I fall asleep on the sofa with the TV on for an hour or two several nights per week. If I'm in bed, I have the mask on. More than half the nights, my only sleep is with the CPAP machine running.

You could easily try setting your machine to APAP with a narrow range topping out at or near your current 17.

15-17 -- don't see a change then try 13-17 or some such. If 15-17 gets significantly worse, just go back to 16-17.

I have a lifetime to tweak the settings. I've decided to use the Rx setting until I talk to the nurse-practitioner at the sleep center. At that point, I'm going to enable the AutoSet feature and start collecting data with different settings.

[herbm]

Sorry, I was NOT suggesting you SHOULD tweak the settings, only that when/if you decided to do so this would be pretty straightforward.

I apologize for the confusion. I never (intend to) suggest that anyone should start making changes.

[GeoffD]

I just got off the phone with the nurse-practitioner at the sleep center. I told her the good news and that I wanted to reconfigure the S9 to AutoSet mode and gradually reduce the lower number. Since I'm a constant 17 cmh2o now, I'm going to start very conservatively at 15/17 and collect another week or two of data. Since I have no particular comfort or sleep problems at an aggressive constant 17 setting, I see no reason to change things any faster.

[herbm]

That's sounds like a good plan

[Galactus]

I believe that also has EPR which you might want to turn on as well if it is not already on.