Please help me to understand OSCAR data

[DaveL]

I appreciate all these posts.
After too many years of not feeling better, I'm finally feeling better! Since I took advice here and replaced old cpap with a new S10 autsense for her
My numbers were better with the old machine. But I feel better now.
But that's my story. I hope that hearing it will help you. that's the reason I'm telling it.

[Sleepster]

What is the ultimate goal for using cpap?  Is it to have zero  AHI? What would be a "good" chart look like?

When you have your sleep study and your AHI is below 5, that is considered normal and it indicates that CPAP therapy is not needed. Hence, we try to get the CPAP machine adjusted so that your AHI is below 5.0. Many people report that they feel better when their AHI is even lower than that.

The other things I look at are the number of hours used and the leak rate graph. Doctors tell us how much sleep we should be getting, but everyone is different. As for the leak rate graph, I look to see if there are long stretches of time where the leak rate is elevated above the baseline. That's usually a sign of a poor mask fit.

[SarcasticDave94]

Good pointers there. Numbers help by seeing if we're meeting goals. These can be used to see data that says we're headed in the right direction or to warn of trouble spots that need attention. To know definitely if it's helping, we must consider if we feel better for the effort that goes into using PAP. Regardless of numbers, if you are feeling better, it is worth it. Each of us have different levels of feeling better. So you have to define for yourself what feeling better for usage means. If you notice a positive difference in better rest, and being less tired, then that should be all that matters.