(03-18-2014, 01:38 PM)brianps Wrote: Hi All
I use a ResMed S9 machine and usually look at the "last night" report on the Info button every morning. It's a pretty simple report, but what I'm wondering is whether the "mask fit" smiley face indicates whether I'm keeping with my mouth closed when I'm asleep.
Mr. Red Frowny shows up if you are leaking AT or ABOVE 24 L/min for at least 30% of the night. Otherwise Mr. Green Smiley shows up.
Resmed defines an Official Large Leak as any leak over 24 L/min. A few Large Leaks are usually not a problem when it comes to the efficacy of the therapy and the accuracy of the data. But if the leaks are both
long and
large, they can adversely affect both the quality of the therapy and the accuracy of the data.
Mouth leaks
usually are large and are often large enough to be Official Large Leaks. So if you're sleeping with your mouth wide open for 30% or more of the night, then there's a pretty good chance that Mr. Red Frowny will pay you a visit the next morning. But if you're sleeping with your mouth wide open only 25% of the night, there's a pretty good chance Mr. Green Smiley will show up the next morning.
Quote:If not, is there any way I can tell if my mouth is open or closed?
By going into the
Detailed Sleep Report on the LCD you will see what's called the
95% leak rate. If the 95% Leak rate is 30 L/min, that means that for 95% of the night your leaks were AT or BELOW 30 L/min and for 5% of the night your leaks were AT or ABOVE 30 L/min.
If the 95% leak rate is below 24 L/min, then you know that there's not enough leaking going on for mouth breathing to be a serious problem.
If Mr. Red Frowny shows up, then you know that there IS enough leaking going on for it to be a problem, and mouth leaks are a top suspect if you're not using a full face mask.
If the 95% leak rate is above 24 L/min, but Mr Green Smiley shows up, you're in grey territory. Some of the leaks are definitely
large enough to be a concern, but the question is how long did those leaks last? The only way to really assess this situation is to look at the leak line itself in either ResScan or SleepyHead. If there's a lot of large humps in the leak graph and those humps are often near or above 24 L/min, you're probably doing some mouth breathing. And if you're also dealing with dry mouth symptoms or the AHI seems to be too high, those leaks may be long enough for them to be a problem for you, even if they're not a problem in the Resmed engineers eyes.
