"acceptable" level for flow limitations?

[hegel]

   





My flow limitations are usually in the area of 6 or 8; almost always well below 25--whatever that means. They hover at the very bottom of the graph. But I have a near constant stream of them. What is considered normal, or acceptable? I wear a neck brace.

p.s. this is not a typical night in other regards....

[Crimson Nape]

Where are you getting the numbers? They sound more like leak rates. Flow limits only go up to 1.0 for a Resmed. Your chart lists the max flow limit as, .16.

[Sleeprider]

Hegel, it's likely the bilevel Vauto would eliminate most flow limitation, but meanwhile I think you might we should focus on comfort and better sleep. It looks to me like you could benefit from a couple small changes. I'd like to see pressure event out rather than bounce around, and to do that, I think a minimum of 8.6 and Autoset Soft Response might be useful. It's really just an experiment to see if this gets you better results or not, but the hope is these settings result in less sleep disruption.

[hegel]

Mssr. Nape, I forgot to use a decimal and 0!!. I was doing this from memory until I thought to enter a screen shot. So, I think I meant, 'in the area of .06 or .08'. Actually it's mostly below .04. That seems pretty good but I just don't know what is considered normal or acceptable.

I think it's probably true that raising my minimum would help. I used to have a higher minimum and have been experimenting with brining it down to see if it helped my eusatchian tube issues.

p.s. as I mentioned, this screen shot shows an untypical night for me in most respects.

[OpalRose]

hegel,
I agree with the advice to raise minimum pressure. SleepRider also suggested to use the "soft" mode.

When in the Clinicians menu, choose Auto for mode. Now you have a choice of "standard" or "soft"...
select "soft".

[hegel]

    [attachment=34414]What does 'soft" do?

I just checked. I'm in  the soft setting.

Are people suggesting I raise the minimum pressure to address flow limits or for other reasons too?

I included another, more typical night.

[OpalRose]

I think you've addressed FL as much as possible by using EPR 3.

I think an increase in pressure was advised to help stabilize pressure swings as you may be sensitive to that.
The increase would be more in line to where your median pressure is.

The "soft" mode is less aggressive than the "standard" mode and may give you a more restful sleep.

Your focus should be on comfort as your AHI is good.

[Sleeprider]

I actually was working from the assumption you don’t need big changes and what Rose said…well she read my mind. 

[hegel]

Thanks Y'all! That's how I was feeling too--my ahi has been good for sure. I'd like to improve my leaks but really they're acceptable too. I'll bring up my minimum and see how that works and feels. My cpap use is pretty darn comfortable.

I read in bed for an hour in the afternoon and wear my mask in case I doze off--that's why I have the odd split in my sessions.