No more Auto mode for me

[PaytonA]

When I was using my Resmed S8 VPAP Auto in S mode, I decided to try it in Auto mode. I thought that it might be beneficial if I was not at 20 IPAP/16 EPAP all of the time. My data went downhill and everything I tried either did not help or made things worse, so I went back to S mode. Everything immediately improved. I thought that the problem with Auto mode might be that it ignores centrals when pressure over 12 and does not respond to flow limitations. Thought the S9 might be better in Auto mode.

Received my new S9 and there are a lot of things that I like about it. Had great results in S mode. Decided it was time to try the Auto mode. The auto mode was better than the S8 had been but did not give results as good as the S mode did. Went back to S mode last night and my AHI immediately dropped from 1-3 to 0.3. Looked at the data graphs and it looks to me like the S9 raises the pressure on a timely basis but then lowers it too rapidly and lets an event sneak in before it can get back up to where it was. Yes I can squeeze my operating range down but I get to the point where the auto mode is operating like S mode.

Still am extremely happy with the S9. I think it is a great machine.


Best Regards,

PaytonA

[justMongo]

It's a great machine. I started in S mode. I went to auto; and get 8 hours sleep with an AHI near 1.
A very rare 10 second central. No clustered OSAs. Of course we are all different.

I'll send you a PM.

[Peter_C]

My sleep doc only suggests auto mode for learning. He likes set pressures as he believes your body responds better to set pressures better - even with the risk on an event coming that might need a higher pressure. He believes better sleep/rest to be had with fixed pressures.

[Terry]

My sleep doc only suggests auto mode for learning. He likes set pressures as he believes your body responds better to set pressures better - even with the risk on an event coming that might need a higher pressure. He believes better sleep/rest to be had with fixed pressures.

I think there's something to that. With my machine on auto 7-20, I didn't feel all that awesome and even though my AHI was less than two, I was sleeping like crap and waking up all night and had tons of snoring (which apparently the machine ignores).

The "auto" part was never able to figure out where to keep my pressure to eliminate the apneas and the flow limitations and the snoring..

Since I raised the minimum pressure so the it was a little less than my "95%" pressure, all the apneas, flow restrictions and everything else vanished and I get less than 0.2 every night, sleep right through from 11pm to 7am and wake up feeling awesome.

If you look at the graph in SleepyHead, you can easily tell what pressure you would need to keep all the bad stuff from ever happening.

Auto works nicely as long as the minimum pressure is set to what you need to keep everything clean under normal conditions. If it's just set to 7-20 or whatever, it's not so awesome, at least for me.

[PaytonA]

My sleep doc only suggests auto mode for learning. He likes set pressures as he believes your body responds better to set pressures better - even with the risk on an event coming that might need a higher pressure. He believes better sleep/rest to be had with fixed pressures.

I think your sleep doc may well have a point. I plan on using the auto mode only if it looks like I might need different pressures. Just let the machine see where it thinks I ought to be

[PaytonA]

Auto works nicely as long as the minimum pressure is set to what you need to keep everything clean under normal conditions. If it's just set to 7-20 or whatever, it's not so awesome, at least for me.

Yep. I took my IPAP 20, EPAP 16 setting in S mode and set the auto mode for min EPAP=15, max IPAP=21, PS=3. I could have narrowed it down but it would not take long before I would be back to where I was in S mode, so I didn't see the point

[Peter_C]

My problem is that I have meds that change every 4 weeks - either dosage, or the med itself. So, I keep mine at a MIN of my 95% number, but allow it to go up as needed. And for me, it does change at times, but by 0.2 to maybe 2.0 max. And I sleep through it just fine after all these years on CPAP.

[Ghost1958]

Ive had pretty good luck with Auto on the PR560 auto. It was set by the sleep lab and doc to min 6 max 15. However with the Optistart turned on every thirty hours it recalculates the starting pressure to where it has run 95 percent of the time to eliminate events.

It bumped my starting pressure up to 8.5 in a few nights of use which dropped me from 4.3 to 2.3 AHI. It does that every thirty hours. As long as its working that well and I feel as good as I do I think Ill let it set itself. 8.5 is what I would have set it for a straight pressure myself anyway after looking at the graphs for a few days.

But it can still run up to 15 and has went to 14.5 for few short periods if it needs too to handle a bad period of time. Never stays there for long though then back down once the little nasties are gone.

[big_dave]

My sleep doc only suggests auto mode for learning. He likes set pressures as he believes your body responds better to set pressures better - even with the risk on an event coming that might need a higher pressure. He believes better sleep/rest to be had with fixed pressures.

I personally do poorly on fixed pressure -- but everyone is different. I always say to try both and see which works best for you.

[Peter_C]

My sleep doc only suggests auto mode for learning. He likes set pressures as he believes your body responds better to set pressures better - even with the risk on an event coming that might need a higher pressure. He believes better sleep/rest to be had with fixed pressures.

I personally do poorly on fixed pressure -- but everyone is different. I always say to try both and see which works best for you.

I completely agree - just like with masks! 20 people can say that XX mask is wonderful, but *you* might well hate it. Welcome to the hosehead world