MapBetterment

Also, to be perfectly honest with you guys, I have been shooting from the hip so to speak, and managing my sleep apnea on my own, so your input has been invaluable, and I even printed out that article on complex sleep apnea and took written notes on it yesterday, thank you so much!

I had an at home sleep study performed at the end of March (attached screenshots of my results) because for one, my Oura ring sleep tracker was detecting every night that my sleep is restless and also my sister has UARS (upper airway resistance syndrome) and I had a history of a modest degree of snoring. With the current pandemic it only made sense to independently investigate this matter, so I immediate bought the DreamStation out of pocket and seeking any and all knowledge ever since for fine tuning it, this didn't feel like something that should be prolonged. Since starting the CPAP, even though my numbers aren't the greatest, I have required an entire hour less of sleep each night and feel more rested than ever before, so it is definitely helping.

Thanks for all the guidance once again, it means a ton!

Great information, thank you both! I have uploaded screenshots of my results from last night. I made no other change but to turn off the flex (pressure was still set to minimum 8, maximum 12).

I was unable to find mask pressure or flow limitation, but otherwise have restructured my graph in the order recommended, and made it more aesthetically pleasing overall.

Thank you so much Sierra!

I will revisit the SleepyHead application and refine my order of graphs as you have advised, good stuff!

1. Are there any important conclusions that could otherwise be drawn from if my machine did report mask pressure?

2. What is the order of concern with respect to central apnea, hypopnea, and obstructive apnea?

3. Do you personally, or this community in general, advocate for using a humidifier feature if available on the machine (I use only distilled water in my machine and have it set to 2/5 for intensity of humidification)?

4. Do you write-lock your SD card when inserting into your computer?

5. How to know which kind of mask, i.e., full face, or nasal, is ideal for a person?

6. Anything lifestyle-related or otherwise that I could implement to help me out (I noticed my apneas are lessened when I sleep on my side, but sleeping on my back is most comfortable with my full face mask, but I am always open to new ideas and trying things)?

7. How does one establish the cause of their sleep apnea?

Thanks, you have been enormously helpful, I will be sure to turn off the flex feature, rearrange my graphs, and report back!

Perfect thank you very much, in the meantime I have increased my machine min pressure to 8, and max pressure to 12 and included screenshots of some big improvements seen last night. Which metrics (Y-axis from the graphs) are most useful and in what order top to bottom?

Thanks again!

Thanks Sierra, I toyed around with the settings a bit so hopefully this is more valuable. I think I need to increase my pressure as a starting point, but just wondering where to start and how to progress over time based on data trends.

I use the ResMed Airfit F10 full face mask shown here (hopefully will upload).

Hmm, I was pretty sure I had uploaded a single screenshot of my results earlier today, it still doesn't appear to have posted properly.

Thank you so much for your explanation, it means a lot! I believe I followed those steps properly, but am just not seeing the comment I just left where I had, from what I could see, successfully uploaded just one screenshot of my night from April 30th. I wonder if there is a delay, some filtering process to ensure that it is not spam-generated?

Thank you so much Sierra, very good, specific advice! I will attempt to attack my first screenshot below this text, and thanks again!

Hi all,

I had an at home sleep study done on March 27th, 2020. My pAHI was 16.7.

I started using a Philips Respironics DreamStation AutoCPAP and was hoping to be pointed to resources that could help better direct my apnea management.

So far I have installed the Sleepy Head application to my laptop and have been generating statistics and reports with it, with little background knowledge of how to interpret the data to better direct my therapy.

I am trying to lower my AHI and get the best, uninterrupted sleep possible.

Thanks, Jason