Hello, welcome. I suppose I'll start by answering your questions and then talking about what I found in your data.
Quote:Some of my questions were, is there any way to tell if I actually have sleep apnea from this data?
Yes, you will be. Your CPAP tracks every breath you take during the night in something called the flow rate graph. By looking for drops and subsequent spikes in your flow rate, you can determine if you're having apneas.
Quote:Should I make any changes to my CPAP settings at the moment based on the data and why?
Probably. I'll get to that in a moment, though.
Quote:What types of things should I be monitoring when using my machine?
Mainly your leak and flow rate data. These are by far and away the most important graphs. Leak can be detrimental to your sleep, both because leak can undermine the effectiveness of your therapy, and it's ability to keep your airway stable throughout the night. But also because leak itself can be incredibly disruptive towards sleep, if there is enough of it, and it is highly variable. Flow rate tells you everything about your breathing, and since this is, at it's core, a respiratory disorder, it is the most important. You mainly want to look out for decreases in airflow that precede an arousal, or a spike in the flow rate graph. It's not the decrease in airflow itself that disturbs sleep, but the subsequent awakening that usually follows them.
Quote:When would one want to use APAP or constant pressure?
I... struggle to recommend APAP for any circumstance. It is an inherently flawed system, as it works reactively instead of proactively. Meaning it only does something AFTER you've already briefly woken up. It falsely flags events, it misses events, it over titrates and under titrates constantly. It is merely the machine's interpretation of your flow rate graph, and it is not infallible. A constant pressure works because your anatomy does not change. The only variables here are potential weight loss/gain, and sleeping position changes, which can both affect how obstructed your airway becomes. But beyond that, once you find the right pressure, it will stabilize your airway throughout the entire night.
As for your data, the main thing that stands out to me is leak. It is absolutely disturbing your sleep. I can give some specific examples next post as to why if you're curious. You're using a nasal mask, so it appears to be a mouth leak, which is when your tongue and face muscles relax during sleep, allowing the air to shoot out through your mouth. If you've been experiencing any dry mouth this is why. This is definitely something you're going to want to fix, and really the only way you can is with mouth tape. You asked if there was any way you could tell if you had sleep apnea. Below, I attached three examples of hypopneas from one night (none of which your machine even tagged lol, hence my thoughts on APAP) which is typically defined by at least a 30% decrease in airflow, followed by an arousal.
My main recommendation would be to eliminate leak. If you're not comfortable using mouth tape under any circumstance, maybe it would be beneficial to look into a full face mask. But managing leak is typically much easier with a nasal mask once you solve for mouth leak, which is an easy fix. As for pressure settings... I'd recommend starting at a fixed pressure of 10 cmH2O. You might need to be lower, you might need to be higher. I won't be able to tell until I can see a night with it. But with that much leak it can really muddle the data, so fixing that is definitely what I'd recommend doing first.
Apologies for the incredibly long response, but I hope this helps.