Francesco

I'm interested in how you others folks' out there see your sleep data and interpret it. I use Sleepyhead for my analysis.

One thing I think is misleading in some of the summary scoring the manufacturers apps provide (e.g. the handful of stats provided by Resmed on the cpap unit display and/or the MyAir phone app) is that they seem to be focused on compliance (hours of use) rather than true sleep quality. Their scoring methodology assigns the preponderance of the weighting to the time the machine was used.

If I look at my data from a poorer sleep night where I had say a 5 or 6 total AHI, I often find that that result is largely a function of a rapid service of CAs over a relatively brief period, say 20m, and that the rest of the night I slept relatively uninterrupted with a much lower AHI (it's easy to do the math for specific time periods).

On the other hand a lower score may show in the data that while I had fewer interruptions they were dealt out across the night and that I had no lengthy periods of no interruptions.

A minor point perhaps but your "score" can be artificially inflated simply by making sure you meet their minimum hours of use stat.

Everyone is different, and affected differently by their sleep issues, so I simply encourage diving into the data to better understand how your therapy is really proceeding

Thoughts welcomed.

FWIW, my sleep study (a home test) indicated a preponderance of central events too with similarly high AHI results.

As soon as I started therapy however my numbers dropped into the "normal" range (5 or <) almost immediately and even though CAs continue to be my "wildcard", and I occasionally have a poor night (still even then never over say a total AHI of around 6), my averages over the past 3 months on my current machine are CA: 1.2, OA: 0.8 and overall AHI (including "other"/hypopneas) is 2.4. Suggest you give it all a chance, do the therapy, read all you can, exchange ideas on sites like this (e.g. with folks like Sierra who's input I have found particularly helpful), and follow your instincts to tweak your therapy accordingly.

I have a ResMed Airsense 10 Autoset machine. To this day I remain a bit confused as to what type of machine it actually is.

I understand that sleep apnea therapy machines are generally classified as either CPAP, APAP or BiPAP, but given the Airsense's ability to change pressures thru the night, and its EPR feature that can differentiate between inhalation and exhalation pressure settings it seems to be providing features of all three. Thoughts?

I'm curious what you all thrink about this hypothesis and your corresponding thoughts on pressure settings and EPR.

I have complex apnea and central events are my nightly wildcard. Looking at the data in Sleepyhead it appears to me that they tend to occur at sleep stage transitions, as if my neuro-chem breathing control bobbles the ball so to speak in picking up breathing responsibilities since I tend to see CAs, and often flurries of CAs, over relatively brief periods of the night, and especially as either: (1) I am initially drifting off to sleep; (2) trying to go back to sleep after awakening or getting up to use the bathroom; and (3) near the end of sleep 20 or 30 minutes before I awake for good. Thoughts?

FWIW, I have an Airsense 10 Autoset as well as the Mini. For me the Mini is no substitute. Does not work anything like the larger model.

I also tend to look at the distribution of events using Sleepyhead. I often have a lot of CAs and often those are clustered over a short period of time ( say 20-45) minutes near the end of the night whereas the rest of the night was pretty interruption free. That's the problem with AHI averages. You may not realize that most of the night you slept quite well.

Since the above was written I've enjoyed a good run of improved AHI's running in the approx 1.3 - 2.5 range. I still have "off" nights, never exactly sure why. Still, my off nights are considered "mild SA" according to the AHI tables.

When I do have off nights though, they tend to be as described above in my earlier post in the sense that I enjoy relatively undisturbed sleep for 5.x of the 6.x or so hours I tend to sleep, with a flurry of CAs in the last 40-60 minutes that raise say a 1.3 for the 5 hr segment to say a 3.0 for the night (i.e. the majority of the interrupts occurring as I drift in and out of sleep at the end of the night, never returning to deeper sleep).

Interesting you say this as what you describe is along the lines of what I was thinking of trying based on my own data analysis and what I have researched regarding CSA and air pressure. Thank you for sharing this.

Are you sure you are mouth breather? I thought I was, initially got a full mask, hated it, and was about to throw in the towel. I decided to give a nose pillow mask a try. I found it pretty much stuck my tongue in place and kept my mouth closed letting me breathe just thru nose. Might be worth trying before giving up.

Thank you.

Yes, we appear to have a lot of similarities.

I too am currently using an AirSense 10 AutoSet.

I also take a BP med although mine is an Ace Inhibitor.

On occasion, maybe a handful over past the 8 months I've exhibited one brief episode of CSR during a night.

I am also under the care of a cardiologist, monitoring a minor MVP. Otherwise my recent tests revealed no other obvious cardiovascular issues.

Agree that at current AHI levels, while a drag, I am unlikely to get moved to an ASV.