Sierra

What manufacturer and model of mask are you using? If it is a nasal, or nasal pillow mask, could you be opening your mouth and letting air out that way? If you download and install SleepyHead, you can get a lot more detail. When you look at the graph of leakage through the night you will get a lot better idea what is going on. The typical mouth leak is high and has a flat level top. See link below.

SleepyHead Download

Yep, I have all the same numbers/dates. Probably not a SleepyHead issue.

It may come down to working up the nerve to delete existing data, and hope the new data is saved properly. Not sure it applies with F&P machines, but with ResMed, the machine itself does not save detailed data, only summary data. If you have issues with the removable data storage media, no detailed data is stored. With ResMed if you stick in a new or blank SD card it will format it and start saving data again from scratch. That may be another option to try.

I used a F&P SleepStyle machine for a couple of weeks as a trial machine. It is the new one that supersedes the Icon. It was not compatible with SleepyHead. I returned it in any case. However, I understand that SleepyHead is supposed to support the older Icon+ machines with the USB stick. What version of SleepyHead do you have? The one I have has been downloaded from this site. I think some have had issues with the version downloaded from the Sourceforge site.

SleepyHead Download

I tried to find you a Clinician Guide for this CPAP, but failed to find a good one. I did find a YouTube video on how to use the Clinician Menu on the Icon Plus. It may be of some help. What you might want to consider is finding an option to delete all the user data and start fresh. Most machines have this option to use in case the machine is sold. I found this in another forum as an answer on how to delete user data. It may be of some help.

How to use Clinician Menu on Icon Plus

"But in the clinician's menu, turn the large outer ring so that the cursor is at the bottom dot. (6 O'clock), Press the centre button then turn the outer ring to the specific data you wish to erase. Press the centre button then using the outer ring reduce each value to zero. You will need to be careful not to erase data you should keep. Hope this is of help. Can't be more specific as I don't want to damage my data experimenting."

I suffer from not being able to go to sleep as fast as I want at times. And, I also know what it is like to become agitated when fighting with the mask to get comfortable and stop the leaks. After trying 4 different masks I have found the AirFit P10 to be the best for comfort. It is not perfect, but I have made peace with it, and generally find it comfortable. Another issue that I was a bit slow to pick up on, and my initial provider did not help me much, was the start pressure. This is the pressure your mask initially starts at. Mine was set too low, and I was not getting enough air during the going to sleep period of the night. It was initially set at 4 cm. I now have it set at 8.4 cm with an EPR setting of 3. However, I only use the EPR during this initial time before going to sleep.

A while back I stumbled onto the website at the link below. It was started by a pharmacist in Canada, that is also a professor at the univeristy. I suspect it is probably a grad student project of some kind. It is a little disorganized, but I still have found it helpful. The website was inspired by the belief that too many people use sleeping pills and it may cause more harm than good. I don't find anything for sale at the site, and apparently he is not concerned about selling fewer sleeping pills at his pharmacy either. He promotes the use of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy for Insomnia or CBTi. The link takes you to a page where there is a series of points worth opening and reading. There are also 4 tools to access your sleep in the right sidebar. They are helpful in checking your beliefs about insomnia vs current research. A few of my conclusions was that I was trying to sleep too long (9-10 hours a night). 7-8 hours is the recommended total sleep in the day. I also was in the habit of taking naps during the day, and that is not helpful either, even if you had a poor sleep the night before. In any case here is the link. Hope it helps some,

MySleepWell.ca

It is good to hear that you are getting some help and some choices in masks. It is probably the most critical component of the CPAP treatment. Believe it or not, with all the masks and names, ResMed does have some logic to at least some of them. In general Full Face masks have a "F" in the name, Nasal mask a "N", and Nasal Pillow masks a "P". Not always but most. For that reason I suspect your nasal mask is likely the AirFit N20 not F20?. See link below:

AirFit N20

If so it looks like a well made mask with very good headgear. The issue with it, and the full face F20 is that while the headgear is substantial and should hold the mask in place, the mask itself sticks out quite a bit from the face and is still quite susceptible to being moved, and unsealed. I find that the AirFit P10 nasal pillow mask, see link below, to have a much lower profile on the face and is less susceptible to moving. You don't mention what your pressure is, but I have used it up to 14 cm or so, and it does not leak from pressure at that point. ResMed rates it as suitable up to 18 cm. The headgear on it is not the greatest, but it may work for you. I find wearing a chin strap helps keep it in place.

AirFit P10

SnuzyQ, a contributer here, has posted that she and her husband use the ResMed Swift FX mask. Despite the letters it is a nasal pillow mask, and quite similar to the P10. but with a more substantial headgear setup. It may have a slightly higher profile than the P10, so hard to say which may be better to address your stay in place issue.

My suggestion is to try and convince your provider to let you try both the P10 and Swift FX to see which one works the best. As for letting air out of your mouth, you can try a chin strap. What I have ended up doing is using both a chin strap and paper medical tape (3M millipore) over my mouth. It may seem surprising but I have found that using tape on my mouth to be the least invasive/annoying component of my CPAP setup.

One last thing is the setting in your CPAP for the different masks. You should be sure to ask your provider to set up your machine so you can select the correct mask type as you switch them around. Assuming it is a ResMed CPAP here is a link to a chart showing the correct setup for each machine and mask combination. Surprisingly the N20 mask should be set to pillows, not nasal.

ResMed Mask Setup

I suffer from nasal congestion too. Must be allergies or something. In any case, what I find is that if I can get decongested before I put the mask on, I will stay that way all night. I use the ResMed P10 nasal mask, and I think the air flow directed to each nostril helps. With an AHI of 12 you probably will not need too much pressure from a CPAP and that certainly makes mask use easier. Almost for sure, a CPAP will reduce or stop the snoring. My snoring has gone from pretty bad to zero. The ResMed machines, and probably others measure snoring and use it to initiate pressure increases.

It probably would be helpful if you gave a little more information about your issue. What brand and model of mask is it? How long have you been trying to get it to work? Do you have a provider that is obligated to help you out with the problem? What are the pressures that you are running the mask at?

Mask leaks are probably the most common and most annoying problem with using a CPAP. You can be sure that you have a lot of company with others that are struggling to get their mask to seal consistently. I was not successful in using two full face masks (Mirage Quattro, ResMed F20), but others certainly have been. It probably comes down to getting the mask tight enough but not too tight. That is a trial and error process. I also find your pillow type and how you use it makes a difference. My son uses the Mirage Quattro, and likes it. He tells me that when he side sleeps he sleeps with the mask off the side of the pillow so he does not disturb the position of it on his face. I have also tried a softer pillow like a down alternative and that seems to help a bit. The pillow does not push back on the mask as much. I also think using a satin pillow cover helps some too. It allows your head and mask headgear to slide around on the pillow more easily without disturbing the mask position.

If you provide some more detail, perhaps you will get some more suggestions. Each mask is a little different, and all masks do not suit all people. It can be a combination of finding the best suited mask to you, and then adjusting it properly.

Thank you for the suggestions. I will consider the Swift FX mask. On a quick look, the mask part seems quite similar to the P10 with the dual wall nasal extensions. It has the air exhaust on the hose like the Brevida, while it is built into the mask on the P10. I suspect I could tolerate it, and the headgear does look to be better. What I would like to do is just buy the headgear and fit it to the P10, but that looks pretty difficult. Perhaps when it is time for a mask change I will buy the whole thing. It is a shame that the mask manufacturers at least within their own brand would not standardize on how they attach the headgear to the mask. Each mask seems to have a unique attachment method.

I am a bit burned out on trying new masks at this point, and I think I will take a break from the new mask merry go round for a while. So far I have tried the Mirage Quattro, and even with the help of a good blog titled something like Taming the Mirage Quattro, I couldn't make it stop leaking. It just seemed to walk around on my face. I tried my wife's Mirage FX, and while it was better I couldn't stop the leaks and the rude noises the leaks make. They wake me up. Next I tried the AirFit F20 full face. It is probably better than the Quattro and Mirage FX, but still leaks, and when I finally gave up, it was causing a blister on the bridge of my nose. My sleep quality was bad, because I kept waking up. The latest purchase was the F&P Brevida, and while I think I could get to the point of tolerating it, the batwings part seem to stick out and make it easier to push out of place when side sleeping. I get more leaks with it than I do with the P10. The Brevida also irritates my nose more, but that I suspect would go away over time. I will keep it as a spare, but doubt I will ever use it regularly.

I would have thought with the popularity of the P10 and the poor quality of the headgear that someone would have come up with a new and improved after market version. Doesn't seem to be so...

I find it very helpful to have a Clinical Guide Manual for the AirSense 10 AutoSet as well as the user manual. While many are not comfortable making their own adjustments to their machine, others do. And, even if you have no interest in making changes, ResMed includes a lot more detail in the Clinical Guide as to how the machine actually works and what the various features are about. If nothing else the first dozen pages or so are a good read. The only issue is that the guide is kind of hard to come by. I just stumbled on a link that has a copy of the guide (see below). I would suggest downloading it and saving it as a PDF for future reference. The other thing the guide does is explain the difference in how the For Her version works compared to the standard version. The interesting part is that the For Her is just another option in your Mode selection, so you can buy the For Her version, and make it operate like the standard version. I was not aware of that when I bought my standard AirSense 10. If I had known I would have bought the For Her version, even though I am male. And now I know how it works, and what my needs are, I would probably operate it in the For Her mode instead of the standard mode.

ResMed AirSense 10 - Clinical Guide

NiyaNiya, if you are still checking in, can you explain how you posted a graphic image? I have tried, and can't figure it out...