Sierra

I recently had a hearing test, and as a result got fitted for hearing aids. Now, I know why my CPAP machine and mask is so quiet! That aside, I believe the DreamStation is one of the quietest machines on the market at about 24 dB. So, the good news in this would seem to be that your hearing is very good! And I can tell you that hearing aids are not a lot of fun... I suspect the noise is something you will get used to. You may want to try some background noise like running a fan. It should not take much noise to mask the sound of the machine. Depending on your hose length you may be able to locate it further away from you, and perhaps put a pillow or something between you and the machine. I don't believe there is any quieter machine than the one you have. The ResMed is rated at about 1 dB noisier, so switching brands is not likely to help.

I see from your first post that you were diagnosed with an AHI of 29 and 80% of it was central? What kind of DreamStation did you end up with? Are your central events and AHI well controlled to less than 5?

I think your concern is valid. Best to check into it.

I don't monitor oxygen, so I have no direct experience. However, I would agree that it would be surprising to see O2 levels go down when your AHI is less less than one. You may want to view your detailed results in SleepyHead. One of the variables you can graph is Minute Ventilation. It is a measure of your air exchange. Apnea events normally cause it to go low and be unstable. It would be interesting to see if your Minute Ventilation is stable and if there is any correlation to your O2 measures. If your meter is compatible with SleepyHead you can graph the O2 along with your APAP results.

In general, I only believe that CPAP reduces the incidence of apnea events. What the benefits are of reduced apnea events remains much more speculative. But, it does make some sense that having your blood oxygen levels desaturate to low levels hundreds of times a night could cause some problems.

The advanatage of SH is that it can show you in much more detail what your leaks look like. See the example below. If the leak occurs suddenly and goes up fairly high, over the leak red line, and has a flat top, it is most likely a mouth leak. That event in the middle of the night from 3:20 to 3:30 is a probably example of a mouth leak.

That looks like a good idea. I have a bit of an issue with the back band on my Swift FX headgear slipping up, so I will have to keep that in mind. The other solution I have used is to get a satin pillow protector so my head and headgear slips more easily on the pillow.

Welcome to the forum. A few suggestions and questions for you?

• Do you know what component of the MyAir scoring system is bringing your total score down? The MyAir system puts high emphasis on hours of use.
• If it is mask leaks You may want to consider mouth taping. I use the P10 mask and was initially adverse to trying mouth taping, but finally did it and have not looked back. This is a good video to watch. My wife who also uses a CPAP and a nasal pillow mask was also reluctant to try it, but when she did, it resulted in a significant reduction in her obstructive apnea events as well as reducing mouth leaks. See this thread on it here.
• You may want to consider downloading SleepyHead and copying your SD card data to your computer. It requires a Mac or PC and a SD card reader. The software is free and can be downloaded here. It gives you a display for example of your leaks throughout the night which is much more informative.
• On cleaning I use straight vinegar first on the hose and mask, then Dawn dish soap and water, and last a final rinse of just water. There is no risk of damaging the complete mask and hose with water. I try to do it in the morning and let it hang to dry during the day.
• I would like to find an easy solution to the weight problem too. I believe it is a matter of diet (calories) and exercise. I have the exercise part down well, but not so much on the total calorie intake. Reducing weight can make CPAP treatment more effective.

If you have any other questions, just ask.

I use SleepyHead but am not a technical expert in the workings of it. There may be some work arounds though. I would just create a new user in SleepyHead and update your SD card to that new user to see if that works. If it is a new machine all the data should be on your SD card. Also, SleepyHead can handle multiple machines. So, you could update to the same name that you used with your old machine. Then you can see both your new and old data. There is one other trick you could try, that I resort to when I have issues with the data. Under the Data tab, select Rebuild Data, and then select the machine and serial number that you want to rebuild. It has worked for me.

Bonjour may have some better suggestions for you to try. What version of SleepyHead are you using?

My thoughts are that CPAP is a long term preventative measure that may help to prevent heart disease. This study was conducted on those that already have heart disease. There also seem to be other issues:

"The researchers discovered that 42% of the patients assigned to CPAP used the machines for an average of four or more hours each night, though the overall average duration was 3.3 hours per night. Importantly, their sleep apnea severity decreased from 29 breath pauses per hour to four."

On average they reduced AHI from 30 to 4. However that was only for about 3 of the 8 hours a night. The other 5 hours they would have been having 30 events per hour. Seems to me that if they wanted to find out if CPAP could reduce risk in those that already have heart disease they would have limited the candidates to those that use CPAP for 100% of the night, or say 8 hours. Then they might start to see a difference.

I would put it in the category about studies on the risk of drinking coffee. If you get a study that says there are risks, just wait a week and there will be another study that says there are none.

I will leave others on that forum to figure it out. But for starters the machine could be set so the maximum pressure is lower than 20 cm.