Why so many multiple sessions

[anleva]

I'm looking for insight into why I am getting so many multiple sessions each night.  20 last night, 20 the night before.  Is it an issue with my machine? Mask seal?  Breathing through the mouth with a N30i mask?  I have ordered a Somnaseal and am going to pick up some mouth tape to see on the open mouth.  My DME is also sending me an F30i to try as well.  But is it possible my machine is broken or has a power supply issue?  I'm not taking my mask off in the evening, though MyAir is noting these as mask off events. It is also saying my mask seal is 5/5.  

I've attached two screen shots. One including the session information. Thanks!


       

[greatunclebill]

just a wild guess. you have auto on and auto off buttons. turn them both off. the theory is somehow your machine is turning itself off and auto starting and you ae sleeping right thru it.

[anleva]

Thanks. I actually had autostart and autostop off.  And some of the time lapses are 15+ minutes. So odd.

[Nightynite]

That’s amazing, I’m surprised you have no idea if your mask is leaking or if your machine is broken.
Can you feel air blowing out the sides of the mask? If so, do you try adjusting the straps?
One thing to understand about these mask is that they are not supposed to be tightened as hard as you can go. They are designed to be worn a little snug and then air pressure helps the mask to expand and help with the sealing.

[anleva]

I've got a good seal on my mask.  I did the test with the machine as well and it validated that.  I can't feel air escaping around the mask when I am aware of it.  It's just been a week and the first few days didn't seem that unusual.  But now I'm getting all these mask off stats and last night's was especially strange.  I'm going to recheck all my connections tonight. And I'm going to plug the unit directly into a wall outlet instead of a power strip.  Maybe something is happening with power.

[Nightynite]

Yes, you may be on to something with power interruptions, actually that’s exactly what would happen.

[tomkatt]

 I'm going to recheck all my connections tonight. And I'm going to plug the unit directly into a wall outlet instead of a power strip.  Maybe something is happening with power.

Good thinking. I have occasional intermittent brownouts in my area, I have all the important stuff plugged into UPSes, including my CPAP. The machine just shutting off out of nowhere is a terrible way to wake up gasping.

[Sleeprider]

Let’s solve this. Change settings to minimum pressure 7.0, maximum pressure 12.0 EPR on Full-time setting 3. Please report back with an updated chart. Leaks are very bad. You might be a different mask.

[anleva]

Let’s solve this.  Change settings to minimum pressure 7.0, maximum pressure 12.0 EPR on Full-time setting 3. Please report back with an updated chart.  Leaks are very bad. You might be a different mask.

Thank you. I've attached a screen shot from last night. I just read your comment this morning so I didn't yet change any settings.  I've played with them a bit over the last week, but I went back to the settings from my doctor as I just wanted to have a good baseline of data with those settings for when I talk to them next.  I changed the following since my original comment:

* I switched from an N30i mask to a P30i mask.  I tightened it up a bit too. I have both to try right now.
* I did plug directly into the wall outlet instead of a power strip
* I am now putting on mouth tape at night, 3M Micropore equivalent

Last night I didn't have  any large leaks nor a large number of random multiple sessions with time gaps.  The only additional session was from turning off the machine for a bathroom trip so that one makes sense.

As a novice to all of this, my data from last night looks good? My flow limit graph looks the best it has since I've started CPAP a week or so ago.  Same with overall leak rate and I had no large leaks when before I was having many. My median pressure is the lowest it has been so maybe the better mask seal is resulting in my machine thinking I don't need as high of pressure?  I think with the N30i and the way I sleep, actively rolling from side to side, I think the mask was getting displaced and it was leaking until I would manually adjust it back where it needed to be. That was probably the cause of the large leaks.  The P30i stays in place much better it appears.

Based on this, any recommendations?  Stay the course for a bit?  A higher min pressure and/or EPR might make things more comfortable, but I didn't really feel like I was struggling to breath last night.  

I am also getting an F30i mask to try based on the large amount of leaks I was seeing previously. I'll see how that works, but right now the P30i with mouth tape might be the way to go.

   

[Nightynite]

So was it a power source problem or a mask problem?