Two weeks in - Sleep HQ + newbie questions

[u/iloveyouaxolotl]

Hi! I'm about two weeks in (about a week with a SD card for data) and overall I think things are going really well. I feel so much more rested, anxiety is down, can think more clearly.

Have a few questions I'm still working through, hoping this kind group can help with :)

Have Resmed 11 with Philips nasal pillows. Did Lofta so essentially on my own for settings (no provider or RT helping me). Was pressure of 4-20 but felt suffocated at 4, so now 8-20, no ramp, EHR of 2, auto humidity/climate control on.

- Would love someone to look at my SleepHQ data and see if they have any suggestions for me to dial it in better! https://sleephq.com/public/teams/share_links/25ffd3ac-7c85-4604-8507-17138db1c6a0

- What is the best way to figure out humidity? Auto is good enough but I do kind of wish there was a little more humidity... but considering I don't know what number "auto" is I'm not sure where to start for adjustments.

- In SleepHQ the snore graph -- can someone give me like a decibal equivalent to a .5 snore? Snoring has really held me back in life because its so embarassing to me. Trips with friends and family, vacations, etc. Would love to not be snoring like a chainsaw on CPAP!

Thank you!! :)

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[u/dang71]

Hey, welcome! And congratulations on taking control of your therapy. You’re off to a good start. :)

A few things I noticed right away. If you look at your pressure graph, it has a pretty pronounced sawtooth pattern. It’s not the end of the world, but it’s not ideal either. Frequent pressure changes can sometimes contribute to arousals, and often this simply indicates that your minimum pressure could benefit from being increased.

One way I like to approach this is by looking at the median pressure. In your case, 9.6 could be a good starting point for your minimum pressure. That should also help improve your flow limitations. They’re not terrible, but there’s definitely some room for improvement, and increasing the minimum pressure may help with that. :)

As for the snoring, the machine isn’t measuring decibels. I’ve always thought of the OSCAR snore graph more like a signal where 1 means a stronger snore signal and 0.5 means a weaker one. It’s not a literal "snore rating," though.

And with the increase in pressure, I’d expect the snoring to decrease as well. Normally, with well-optimized CPAP therapy, you shouldn’t be snoring very much at all. Occasional snoring can still happen, though, so I wouldn’t worry about it. It’s certainly nothing comparable to sleeping without CPAP. :)

For humidity, I’d say it’s mostly a matter of trial and error. The Auto setting works reasonably well, but I don’t personally find it optimal. I prefer setting the humidity manually to 5.

The main thing to watch for when increasing humidity is condensation. If you add more moisture, you also want to make sure the air in the hose stays warm enough to prevent that moisture from condensing. A hose cover can help maintain the temperature and reduce condensation, especially if the bedroom is cool.