Oscar : Event data number in brackets.

[stephenrudolph]

hi.
i thought i read something, which relates to the SleepyHead program i have been using...  i have just installed Oscar.

It was previously mentioned that the number in brackets, next to an event was POSSIBLY the length of the event. However i thought the user manual stated that 
the number in brackets was not an accurate measure of length.

Has this changed in Oscar ?

My AHI was tested to be average of 12.5.  My sleep doctor said it was not really that high for a person like myself , but he was uncomfortable that many of my events were about 60 seconds and a good number of events approached 120 seconds. The average low was around 30 seconds.

Using Sleepyhead, that number in brackets averages between 10 and 45 seconds with some readings about 50-60. So i'm wondering if those readings on Oscar is verifying the effectiveness of my therapy, in other words, is the data better than that of SleepyHead ? 
. From those numbers, my total time in Hypowhatever is only 1/4 to 1/2 of the time i logged on my Apnea test.

[DeepBreathing]

G'day stephenrudolph.

When you had your sleep test, presumably there was no mask on your face supplying pressure, just a bunch of wires and tubes and electrodes? So the numbers provided by the test are a measure of your untreated sleep.

The numbers you get from SleepyHead and Oscar are a measure of your treated sleep. So if the machine is doing its job properly, there should be far fewer apneas and hypopneas. It's possible that the duration won't change much - these machines don't generate enough pressure to punch through an apnea that's currently in progress - rather they wait until the event is finished, then raise pressure to prevent further occurrences. All machines will also try to detect precursors - changes in your breathing that signal an apnea is imminent. Resmed machines are particularly good at this.

In both SleepyHead and Oscar the reported durations are those given by the machine. The software only reports the data it has been given. Having said that, SleepyHead (and Oscar v1.0.1) both had difficulties interpreting some of this data. The developers have written completely new data loaders for both Resmed and Philips machines which will hopefully make these reports much more reliable. A new release of Oscar incorporating these changes is being tested and will be out soon - watch out for the announcement.

[stephenrudolph]

thanks for the info. 
as far as i remember, i had the electrodes and stuff, but i did also have a variable CPAP unit with a mask (over nose and mouth). As you said, it varied the pressure to the point it would punch through the apnea.. The machine/doctor decided that 8 was enough to drop my index below 5. When i had re-calls with the clinic, they told me my time in apnea was indeed a lot less than 2 minutes each event.
so maybe the Oscar data is correct.. then i'm happy.
i look forward to the Oscar update !