New CPAP, new thread

[Geer1]

Look at the last image I posted and the notes about it. In short the higher amplitude smooth looking flow rate = good, everything else is questionable. You should be able to see that difference just from looking at the overview and after a while you can easily tell if a night looks good or not.

Unfortunately in your case you only occasionally have good looking flow rates (~20% of that night as an example), this is what I have been trying to improve. It also goes to show that AHI isn't everything because your AHI that night wasn't bad although breathing wasn't that great. Heck you had about 1 hour of breathing with the machine off (the breaks in data) where you must have been mouth breathing without treatment.

[midwestguy]

Look at the last image I posted and the notes about it. In short the higher amplitude smooth looking flow rate = good, everything else is questionable. You should be able to see that difference just from looking at the overview and after a while you can easily tell if a night looks good or not.  

Unfortunately in your case you only occasionally have good looking flow rates (~20% of that night as an example), this is what I have been trying to improve. It also goes to show that AHI isn't everything because your AHI that night wasn't bad although breathing wasn't that great. Heck you had about 1 hour of breathing with the machine off (the breaks in data) where you must have been mouth breathing without treatment.

Sorry, I can’t tell in the overall view what’s good and what isn’t.
I don’t see how you can tell without trial-and-error expansion of 
a section of the flow rate. You and Sleeprider and Dave have the
knack.

I’m spending tonight without the wedge, keeping everything else 
constant. We’ll see once and for all if it has an effect or not.
I’ll load up on antacids to prevent any damage. Hope this isn’t 
a mistake. I’ve been wrong before…

Best,

Harv

[midwestguy]

Heck you had about 1 hour of breathing with the machine off (the breaks in data) where you must have been mouth breathing without treatment.

Those breaks are bathroom visits. Edema. Water pill. Machine is off.

 I hope to.

Best,

Harv

[Geer1]

Here is an enlarged version with some lines added.

The red line is 0 flow rate. Any flow rate lines above this are your inhalations, any flow rate lines below this are your exhalations.

The top blue line is your good inhale flow rate (taken from first hour of data). The bottom blue line is your good exhale flow rate.

Ideally your entire night would show consistent flow rates filling the area between the blue lines like it does for the first hour (21:40 to 22:40).

Your next best period is 0:00 to 0:20 where your exhalation is good and exhalation is only slightly below the blue line.

The mouth breathing example I shared earlier is at 23:00 where you can see almost no exhalation is present. 

After ~ 1:10 your breathing degrades and both inhalation and exhalation are about half the amplitude of what your good breathing was. These are the restricted breathing examples.  

At 3:20 you can see the graph is intermitted because your breathing is oscillating from good to poor. This is because your airway is closing and then body is fighting harder to open it back up and take deeper breaths, then body relaxes and restriction sets back in. 

   

And here is an example of one of my nights to compare to. See how my breathing is much more uniform through the night? That is what you are attempting to achieve, good consistent breathing throughout the night.

   

[Geer1]

Those breaks are bathroom visits. Edema. Water pill. Machine is off.

 I hope to.

Best,

Harv

There were 16 breaks in the data that night, I sure hope those weren't all bathroom visits. If so maybe you need a catheter and bedside bag 

Some of them were breaks, some were caused by smart start shutting machine off because your breath amplitude was small and some were due to the problem with your old machine randomly turning off. Not an issue anymore.

[midwestguy]

There were 16 breaks in the data that night, I sure hope those weren't all bathroom visits. If so maybe you need a catheter and bedside bag 

Some of them were breaks, some were caused by smart start shutting machine off because your breath amplitude was small and some were due to the problem with your old machine randomly turning off. Not an issue anymore.

How can you see last night's results?

I haven't looked at them yet.But last night was a bad time to try sleeping flat.
First, I had way too much caffeine. I was awake for most of the night, even
though the machine was running.

SmartStart is off and will stay off.

Second, there was a major thunderstorm here between 10:30 and 11:45.
No obvious equipment damage, but the CPAP lit up a few times when
lightning struck nearby. Dunno what effect that had on the data.

I'm writing it off.

[midwestguy]

FWIW, here's last night's data.

   

[Geer1]

What I posted was from your old data, not last night.

[midwestguy]

Okay.  No magic.

Here's my Hail Mary desperation nap. I was in bed for about an hour and a half.

The usual collar, no wedge under head, mouth taped: Micropore under regular
3M Blue painter's tape. A very good seal.

I feel pretty good after that shortie.


Just eyeballing the numbers, it worked pretty well. Will try tonight with wedge
back under my head.

   

[midwestguy]

Forgot to reset minimum session length. So last night's data
starts at 23:00 (10PM).

The one sample I stretched out (2nd post) looks like the ideal
waveform you posted earlier.

At first of two bathroom breaks, the tape had loosened under
my nose. Looked like sweat, not drool. Wiped dry and replaced
the tape.

Will continue with tape and wedge under head.