Relative Newby. Need Help w/ Sleepyhead Results

[Violetskyye]

I hope this post works. I've finally gotten a full face mask, and my results and numbers look pretty good after my first night w/ a medium Resmed Full Face F10.

Here's the question. As soon as I have even a couple of small events, the pressure jumps from the 5 or 6 minimum right up to 10, which then wakes me up. I try to go back to sleep, but can't, and then restart back at ramp, only to wake up an hour later when it jumps to 10 from just one event. Shouldn't the machine increase pressure more gently? If I have one OA, why doesn't it just go to 7 to see what happens?

I have it set on "For Her." Would regular setting make this better. It seems like the machine is overreacting, so I'm just going to be going from 6 to 10 over and over. Increasing the minimum doesn't help, because I have a hard time going to sleep with more than minimal pressure. It is easy to see on the chart exactly where the pressure goes up, I wake up, and reset the machine. If there was a way to reset it to 7, I would. Maybe if I go w/ my original prescription of continuous 7 all night?

I'd appreciate any insight.

P.S. Not sure the picture is gonna post, since I don't see it on the preview. If it doesn't, I'll try it another way.

My current settings are EPR ramp only at 2, min pressure 6 max 10, For Her, Humidity 6 [which is using up my water in less than 6 hours]. Just switched from small F10 mask, which hurt my nose to Med size mask last night, which feels a little bit big, but looks like it gave me better numbers than the small, and no big line on the bridge of my nose.

[cate1898]

At least your AHI is in the 'treated' range of under 5. Looks like you still have a leak problem, not sure how significant. Others with more knowledge will hopefully chime in soon.

Keep at it, it gets better over time and adjustments.

[Violetskyye]

Thanks so much. I still haven't found my ideal full face mask. Went from a small to a medium F-10, but my nose bridge is red and hurt after 7 hours of having it on. If I loosen it, I get more leaks. Maybe I'll try a Simplus next.

[Sleeprider]

Violet, lets try setting your maximum pressure at 8.0 and see if you sleep better. You're not having events that are a problem with that pressure currently. If that triggers more OA events to a level that are a concern, we can revisit. There are two objectives here, sleep well, treat the obstructive apnea and hypopnea. I'm just eyeballing the pressure levels and results in your chart, and would rather see you sleeping, than pressing buttons at night.

[Violetskyye]

Violet, lets try setting your maximum pressure at 8.0 and see if you sleep better. You're not having events that are a problem with that pressure currently. If that triggers more OA events to a level that are a concern, we can revisit. There are two objectives here, sleep well, treat the obstructive apnea and hypopnea. I'm just eyeballing the pressure levels and results in your chart, and would rather see you sleeping, than pressing buttons at night.

Thanks so much. I didn't think about lowering max because most advice I see is to raise it, but your idea is kinda brilliant. If it only jumps to 8,maybe I won't wake up. I'll let you know. I'm also going to try to loosen my mask to help my poor nose, and of that doesn't work, try a Simplus mask.

[Violetskyye]

Holy Canolli, you're a genius, Sleeprider. I turned down the max volume to 8.4, and slept a lot better. Check out these numbers! Of course I'm still tired,and actually conked out for two more hours after I took off the mask in the AM, but I guess I've got 20 years of sleep deficit to make up.

I have a big red lump on the bridge of my nose, so I need to further loosen the mask or try another one. Though I hate to change it out, because this is the first one on which I've seen numbers like this without massive leaking, too. It does look like it wanted to be at the max during the last hour, so I don't know whether, had I slept with it on longer, I would have had more events that were not sufficiently corrected.

Bear in mind, with the nasal mask, my AHI was sometimes 29, so the change to the full face mask is dramatic. With an F & P Eson, which I liked a lot, the AHI was high and showed a lot of leaking. Same with Resmed Pillows. Maybe I can post the different charts in one post if you are having discussions with someone about trying a full face.

One other quick question. To my eye, it looks like the pressure started to go up an hour or so before it shows any event. Can you see any reason why that would have happened? Thanks again.

[Sleeprider]

First, I like canoli.

You aren't going to get much better than that. Get the mask to be comfortable and you are on the home stretch. Thanks for the feedback.

[rkl122]

...............

One other quick question. To my eye, it looks like the pressure started to go up an hour or so before it shows any event. Can you see any reason why that would have happened? Thanks again.

I'm not that familiar with the Resmed algorithm, but I'll take a guess. There may have been FL events prior to the increase. Turn on the FL channel in SH to see.

Couple other suggestions for future posting of SH data. Lose the calendar and the pie chart so more meaningful data can fill the left pane. Lose the right pane. Enable the pulse events in the flow chart, and some meaningful dotted lines in the graphs. Anything that maximizes use of the space to convey data.

Therapeutically, you're doing great. -Ron

[Violetskyye]

Thanks, I'll crop out the useless stuff from here on out.

[Sleeprider]

Violet, it's not a matter of cropping. What is seen in the details screenshot can be selected in the Menu options for View in Sleepyhead. Just check and uncheck what should be visible. The Calendar can be toggled by clicking on it. Also in File/Preferences/Appearance, uncheck the pie chart. You're doing great, and this article details how to optimize charts for viewing on the forums: http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...ganization