Using Vcom : do i adjust my EPR?

[enjoysleep59]

Equipment Used

ResMed AirSense 10 AutoSet
Standard Tubing
ResMed AirFit P30i Nasal pillow mask (medium)
V-COM
Ice Cube head pillow
Knee Cube with Ice Cube Cooling Cover

What the Report Revealed

Well, this is my third night with the VCOM in place and with the EPR setting turned off and NO tape. Mouth leaks are all but gone. There is a difference in breathing resistance that will take a little adjusting to, but the benefit of not needing tape is a plus.

There were a few events that occurred during REM sleep and during the wake-up cycle.

Conclusion

The Flow Rate wave form pattern looks good, and I may change the pressure from 10 cmH2O to 9 cmH2O and see how my nightly breathing pattern reacts.

[Nightynite]

Enjoysleep, that’s encouraging.

[pareidolia]

The Flow Rate wave form pattern looks good,

You cannot trust the flow waveform. The waveform is "inferred" by the machine based on the realtime flow required to preserve the target pressure in the mask. Since the device puts a restrictor in the air path, which modifies the pressure delivery (as explained in their white paper) it unavoidably also distorts the waveform. By the looks of it, it imposes a sort of "low pass filter" on the waveform, i.e. it smudges it and takes out the details. This explains why it looks "rounder"

[enjoysleep59]

You cannot trust the flow waveform. The waveform is "inferred" by the machine based on the real-time flow required to preserve the target pressure in the mask. Since the device puts a restriction in the air path, which modifies the pressure delivery (as explained in their white paper) it unavoidably also distorts the waveform. By the looks of it, it imposes a sort of "low pass filter" on the waveform, i.e. it smudges it and takes out the details. This explains why it looks "rounder"

Hi @Pareidolia,

I am not sure I fully agree with your comment about the waveform. I pulled a graph from Feb and compared it to the one last night 05/03 and they look similar.

       

I attempted to get the X/Y axis as close as possible so the scale was similar. The one thing I can see is that there is a slight rounding to the peak of the flow rate on the 5/3 chart. Is this what you're referring to?

[pareidolia]

The waveform on the right looks smoothed to me compared to the one on the left.

[theredheadsaid]

UPDATE: night 3
After doing some reading on VCOM I saw they suggest you should raise your pressure a bit. My average pressure with APAP was 11.4. So I raised it to 12.4 (only CPAP, no EPR). 
I had virtually NO APNEAS. My waveforms don't look as smooth as last night though. And my Apple Watch says my sleep was crap (not much REM or deep sleep). 
It's weird. the few days I've been using VCOM, I've woken up groggy and that hasn't happened since before I was using CPAP. I'm not sure what's going on. 
This was last night. 





This was the night before. Can someone explain if having a "shorter" flowrate/waveform is better?

[Crimson Nape]

The CPAP's sensors are in the machine and can only provide information on the air as it leaves the machine.  Since this device is placed between the CPAP and the user, the sleep data generated is totally bogus.   The degree of this skewing is impossible to calculate.  You might base your therapy on how you feel and not from any sleep reporting software.

As far as being groggy, I would speculate that, based on V-com's published operational premise, it is increasing your CO₂, thus dropping your O₂ levels.  In my opinion, this isn't good.

How much do these things cost?

- Red

[enjoysleep59]

The CPAP's sensors are in the machine and can only provide information on the air as it leaves the machine.  Since this device is placed between the CPAP and the user, the sleep data generated is totally bogus.   The degree of this skewing is impossible to calculate.  You might base your therapy on how you feel and not from any sleep reporting software.

As far as being groggy, I would speculate that, based on V-com's published operational premise, it is increasing your CO₂, thus dropping your O₂ levels.  In my opinion, this isn't good.

How much do these things cost?

- Red

About $24

[Nightynite]

My gut feeling until I get mine is the same as Red said. You need to put in some time, let the body adjust, be careful with what Oscar says. Dial flipping each night never leads to positive results. It’s how you feel is the ultimate test.

[Gideon]

I would want to view 3-minute view data of both normal breathing and various events data taken within 1 week of each other.
I too am not sure how this device affects the algorithms used by various machines.

Better would be to test it against a breathing 'dummy' with various events programmed and see what it does.