AHI of 3 is good...??

xxyzx wrote:

ChicagoGranny wrote:

TASmart wrote:You are giving Sleep apnea bad advise because of this obsession

All of his advice is self-centric.

==========

all my advice is based on scientific evidence
and a knowledge of statistics
AHI is a crude surrogate that sort of indicates how apnea is being treated
but says nothing about how your health and safety were treated

lack of sufficient O2 will kill you
or cause severe damage

disturbed sleep is an annoyance

During my sleep study my O2 levels never dropped, so in my case, I don't think that's the problem. I have been under an ordain amount of stress the last two weeks so that can contribute to fatigue. Thanks for the help though

Pugsy wrote:AHI of 3 is considered "good enough" by the medical community...actually anything less than 5.0 is considered "good enough".
It's a line that was drawn...they had to make it somewhere.

Now some people say that they don't feel so great even at 3...they say they feel best at 1 or 2 or some might say less than 1.0.
There's so much more to having good quality sleep than just the AHI but again we have to start somewhere so the AHI is the starting point.

There's the number of hours of sleep factor...there's the sleep quality factor in terms of wake ups...there's medication side effects factor...there's the other health issues factor.....there's just more to feeling well rested than just the AHI.
Finally...there's the "give it time" factor...sometimes the body just needs time to heal and get back to optimal feeling.
Our bodies didn't get in this shape overnight but we sure expect to fix it overnight and it simply doesn't work that way.
Even with optimal everything and no other complicating factors it can take quite a bit of time before we really notice much improvement in whatever we were wanting improvement on.

What DreamStation model did they end up giving you?
BTW....my OSA is similar to your but just a little "worse"...in non REM sleep AHI was around 12 and in REM it was 53...it's fairly common.
How about using the software available to see the additional data available that isn't included in the AHI numbers that could maybe point to an area where some work is needed...AHI isn't everything.

Hi Pugsy,
It's the Dreamstation CPAP Pro. I've been pretty stressed lately and I think I might be clenching my jaw at night which could be a factor too. I've been wearing my ask, pretty much all night the last 4 nights, and 3 out of the 4 I have woken up with a migraine!!! So frustrating. I think tonight I might meditate before bed and see if that helps. Also, I'm going to look into that Sleepyhead app

TASmart wrote:Oxygen desaturation is not the only risk of SA, nor is it the only cause of unrestful sleep in the presence of SA. Sufficient arousals due to OA, CA, or Hypopneas can prevent one from getting restful sleep despite normal or near normal O2 desaturation levels.

Jane, if your Dreamstation has full data capability you need to get Sleepyhead,it's free, and start uploading the data so people can look at what's happening. I may take some time to feel rested, or it may be that you have upper airway resistance sufficient to disrupt your sleep architecture, and thus resulting in daytime sleepiness.

But getting AHI to 3 is a real good start!

I'm looking into Sleepyhead. It's an app on your phone, right? The last 4 nights I can tell I've been clenching which doesn't help. Family stress!!! I'll post my data when I get it. Thanks for the encouragement!

D.H. wrote:The doctors consider five or less to be "controlled." However, lower is better. Unlike, blood pressure or blood glucose, there is no such thing as "too low." Zero is fine!

Personally, I strive for one or lower, but I realize that might not be possible for everybody.

Meanwhile, three is a great start; it's more that a 50% reduction from baseline! BTW, my baseline in 1999 was over 50!

Wow, over 50, that's rough!!! I went down to 1.4 last night but I'm still feeling awful : (

Sleepyhead is not an app on the phone Jane. It is a free software that you can download and need to use with your PC. Use an SD card reader plugged into your computer or an SD card reader built into your computer to get the data from your SD card to download into Sleepyhead.

*looks around at all the folderol*

palerider wrote:

JaneAsimov wrote:all my advice is based on scientific evidence
disturbed sleep is an annoyance

you mean... like this scientific evidence: https://www.newscientist.com/article/21 ... CNSNS-news

I was quoting that xxyzx or whatever his name is quotes, I never said that. I only wrote the last paragraph of that post you're looking at. Interesting article though, could explain why my dad and Grandma developed Alzheimer's. They BOTH had untreated sleep apnea. Another reason why I'm trying to get on top of mine!!!

Marillion wrote:Sleepyhead is not an app on the phone Jane. It is a free software that you can download and need to use with your PC. Use an SD card reader plugged into your computer or an SD card reader built into your computer to get the data from your SD card to download into Sleepyhead.

Ahhh.....that makes much more sense! My laptop has a built in SD card so I'll try it out. Thanks Marillion!

No problem. Just remember to put the SD card back into your machine after downloading the data.

Or if you wanted to go the wireless route, there are a few threads on downloading the data without even having to remove your SD card if you get a wireless SD card like the Toshiba Flashair wifi card.

xxyzx wrote:

JaneAsimov wrote:I convinced my doctor to get me the Dreamstation with the ability to read AHI. Every morning when I wake up it tells me my AHI is 3, give or take .2 or .3 My respiratory therapist said this was good, but I am still really tired. My AHI at diagnosis was 7, with 26 events during REM., which means my apneas have only dropped by a little more then half. They started me at a pressure of 8 but I had to drop to 7 due to aerophagia.

What is up? Is 3 AHI normal, or "good" as my therapist said?

==============

perfection is not possible

medicos consider under 5 to be plenty good enough

forget AHI
how do you feel

low low does your O2 go
AHI counts a ten second apnea the same as a ten minute one


and is just a crude surrogate statistic to show results in one number for some medicrap bureaucrat to make decisions from

if your O2 is okay then you have other things disturbing your sleep

I'm doing pretty good with my new AirSense, my 90 day AHI is 5.1, but that includes the first couple of weeks when my events were anywhere from 9 to 15, until my provider adjusted the pressure, and set it at a fixed 15. Is it normal to have a spike in events once in a while?
Mine are like 2.6-3.2, then one night I'll get a 6.1 for instance. I like that this machine shows the sleep each night. I never really knew with my old machine until I went for my yearly checkup.

I had an AHI of 2.5 to 5 range for a few years while on the pap and felt terrible most days. Didn't feel any different than if I went without the machine. Had many physical and mental health problems. The doctors were of no help no matter how much I pleaded with them. They considered AHI below 5 as treated. The forum members helped me get my AHI down to around 1most nights and it made a world of difference. I'm not saying this will work for you since there are many things that it could be.

JaneAsimov wrote:

palerider wrote:

JaneAsimov wrote:all my advice is based on scientific evidence
disturbed sleep is an annoyance

you mean... like this scientific evidence: https://www.newscientist.com/article/21 ... CNSNS-news

I was quoting that xxyzx or whatever his name is quotes, I never said that. I only wrote the last paragraph of that post you're looking at. Interesting article though, could explain why my dad and Grandma developed Alzheimer's. They BOTH had untreated sleep apnea. Another reason why I'm trying to get on top of mine!!!

you might wanna go back and fix your quoting then...

Hannibal 2 wrote:

Holden4th wrote:

chunkyfrog wrote:The pattern is familiar.
Others have brought us similar abundance of self-preening in the past.
Most are now gone.
We can only hit the "foe" button until this pest, too, wanders away.

We have a foe button? Where is it? Does it mean that I can press it and never have to read this guys posts ever again? Let me at it!!!

User Control Panel

Done - can we all do that now?

Looking at your Icon Hannibal2 brought to mind another Pink Floyd song from 'The Wall' that could be on xxyzx's mind if we all added him as a foe

"Is there anybody out there?"

Holden4th wrote:

Hannibal 2 wrote:

Holden4th wrote:

chunkyfrog wrote:The pattern is familiar.
Others have brought us similar abundance of self-preening in the past.
Most are now gone.
We can only hit the "foe" button until this pest, too, wanders away.

We have a foe button? Where is it? Does it mean that I can press it and never have to read this guys posts ever again? Let me at it!!!

User Control Panel

Done - can we all do that now?

Looking at your Icon Hannibal2 brought to mind another Pink Floyd song from 'The Wall' that could be on xxyzx's mind if we all added him as a foe

"Is there anybody out there?"

Fits the Comfortably Numb.

I copied and pasted from the other thread. Better to discuss this stuff on your thread than to sidetrack another one.

Rob K wrote:
You mention insomnia and anxiety. Both were pretty bad for me as well as depression. Those were just the mental problems. It was the lack of proper cpap therapy and sleep deprivation that was causing it. AHI range from 2.5 to 5 was not working for me. When we got the AHI down to around 1 my mental health problems went away. It's amazing adequate therapy and restful sleep did for me. The lack for proper treatment and rest could very well be causing your mental health problems like it was for me.

JaneAsimov wrote:
Hi Rob, I saw you mention this on my post too, where I was talking about my AHI being a 3. It's gone down now to an average of 2.3 but I still feel like poop. I notice I'm clenching sometimes at night still and wondering if this is the problem. How did you get your AHI down so low?? I gotta upload the Sleepyhead program, I just have so much going on at home, I don't think about it until I'm going to bed and it's too late then. I have chronic migraine and daily headaches. I've been using my CPAP consistently for 1.5 weeks now and have only seen small improvements. I also struggle with anxiety and depression, but I don't know who wouldn't with the amount of pain and fatigue I have.




I got my AHI down to 1 by learning to use the Sleepyhead software and getting help from the forum members with interpreting the data. For me it was a matter of adjusting the pressure upward until the number of events were minimized. Took a few weeks to adapt and get used to the higher pressures. Took a few weeks to start noticing a difference also. It's been a couple months since we got the pressure adjusted right and things are still improving. I have about 4 years worth of sleep deprivation and physical damage to my body to get caught up on. This will be a process that will take time. The best thing right now is that I don't feel terrible every morning, still don't feel great, but not feeling terrible goes a long way in improving mental health. When I was in the 2.5-5AHI range I was really exhausted. Didn't feel any different with or without the machine. I woke many times and with frequent morning headaches. My body felt tense 24/7. This has all resolved now thankfully. I should probably update my thread so the people that helped me know how things are going. They certainly deserve to know and should have many thanks.

What do you mean by "clenching"? Definitely get the Sleepyhead software going and get your machine data posted so we can take a look. That is the first thing to start with. I still have a lot to learn about interpreting the data, but there are others here that have a lot of experience. That is just one piece of the puzzle though. Like Pugsy mentioned on the other thread there are a number of things that may be causing things to be bad for you. I know from experience that each day you suffer seems like one too many and you don' know how you will go on. Hang in there, it may take some time. Might be days, weeks, months or even years in my case to get back to feeling somewhat better. Weeks to months is pretty common. The more proactive you are with figuring things out the sooner they will get resolved. Take care, I wish you the best.