SleepyHead vs ResScan what is different? What is preferred?

[becker44a]

Hello. I have a ResMed S9 VPAP AUTOset and I use SleepyHead software.
. . .
The RT Replied, 'We use ResScan softwarr!'
. . .
I wondered what differences that ResScan had as compared to SleepyHead software.
. . .

Hi BiLevel48,
I haven't posted much recently as I've been crazy busy at work, but I wanted to pass along some experiences here.

I've been PAPing since January 2014, and using both ResScan and Sleepyhead. I have continued to download my data to ResScan, as I want to be able to present reports originating from software provided by the manufacturer of my unit, should it ever be necessary. I have passed the 13-month rental period for Medicare, so once I get confirmation from the DME that I actually own my unit, that should become a dead issue.

My preference for review of the data is hands down for Sleepyhead. The data presentation is better, more controllable, the graph format is much better. The ResScan software shows the same data in the graphs, but the vertical scaling is so compressed that you can't see much detail in waveforms. In Sleepyhead, the zooming and positioning of the graphs is done with the mouse or with arrow keys. In ResScan, all you can do is change the horizontal scaling factor, and then scroll the graph horizontally to find what you want to see. The Sleepyhead method is far more convenient.

My other issue with ResScan is that it seems to occasionally decide arbitrarily that I slept for a shorter time than Sleepyhead reports. When I see a difference in the sleep time reported between Sleepyhead and ResScan, I sometimes have gone to the detailed graphs, drilled down to the Flow graph, and looked at the start and stop times for each session (simpler now that I rarely wake more than once per night), and manually add up the sleep time. In every case I have done this, the time reported by Sleepyhead was correct, and the ResScan time was shorted. The reason this is significant is that underestimating the sleep time causes a discrepancy in the AHI calculation, which is (total events) / (total sleep time). Normally, since ResScan reports the AHI calculation with one digit to the right of the decimal, you don't see much effect, but I find it bothersome that the software is making decisions about the sleep time that are not explained.

I expect to stop using ResScan fairly soon, and upgrading Sleepyhead to a more current version, so I won't see the effect I have mentioned here after that. But I thought you might appreciate another perspective on this issue.

Good luck on your journey.

[BiLevel48]

Hello. I have a ResMed S9 VPAP AUTOset and I use SleepyHead software.
. . .
The RT Replied, 'We use ResScan softwarr!'
. . .
I wondered what differences that ResScan had as compared to SleepyHead software.
. . .

Hi BiLevel48,
I haven't posted much recently as I've been crazy busy at work, but I wanted to pass along some experiences here.

I've been PAPing since January 2014, and using both ResScan and Sleepyhead. I have continued to download my data to ResScan, as I want to be able to present reports originating from software provided by the manufacturer of my unit, should it ever be necessary. I have passed the 13-month rental period for Medicare, so once I get confirmation from the DME that I actually own my unit, that should become a dead issue.

My preference for review of the data is hands down for Sleepyhead. The data presentation is better, more controllable, the graph format is much better. The ResScan software shows the same data in the graphs, but the vertical scaling is so compressed that you can't see much detail in waveforms. In Sleepyhead, the zooming and positioning of the graphs is done with the mouse or with arrow keys. In ResScan, all you can do is change the horizontal scaling factor, and then scroll the graph horizontally to find what you want to see. The Sleepyhead method is far more convenient.

My other issue with ResScan is that it seems to occasionally decide arbitrarily that I slept for a shorter time than Sleepyhead reports. When I see a difference in the sleep time reported between Sleepyhead and ResScan, I sometimes have gone to the detailed graphs, drilled down to the Flow graph, and looked at the start and stop times for each session (simpler now that I rarely wake more than once per night), and manually add up the sleep time. In every case I have done this, the time reported by Sleepyhead was correct, and the ResScan time was shorted. The reason this is significant is that underestimating the sleep time causes a discrepancy in the AHI calculation, which is (total events) / (total sleep time). Normally, since ResScan reports the AHI calculation with one digit to the right of the decimal, you don't see much effect, but I find it bothersome that the software is making decisions about the sleep time that are not explained.

I expect to stop using ResScan fairly soon, and upgrading Sleepyhead to a more current version, so I won't see the effect I have mentioned here after that. But I thought you might appreciate another perspective on this issue.

Good luck on your journey.

WOW.

Thank you sooooo much. I really really have gotten such bennifit out of this wonderful description of what you have experienced with both of these softwares.

It has truly assisted me beyond any means of a description. I am so glad that you are back on the Apnea Board. I know how it is to be busy. It is good that you are going well, and it is good that we have members like yourself who have contributed to helping other PAP users, whether it be a straight CPAP user, or a BiLevel user, or an ASV user, or even a user who uses the modes higher up on the PAP scale. I speak for all of the other members and PAP users when I say, its PAP users like you, who TRULY make a difference in Sleep Apnea.

[Sleepster]

The ResScan software shows the same data in the graphs, but the vertical scaling is so compressed that you can't see much detail in waveforms.

Select a smaller number of graphs. If you choose to view only one graph, for example, it will expand vertically to fill the window.

I used this technique to view my leak graphs in the weeks prior to my abandoning the nasal mask due to mouth-leaks. With only the leak graph selected in both the upper and lower windows I could view the entire night's data in the upper window and zoom in on smaller amounts of time in the lower. Pretty nifty!