Eating before bed and ahi

Last night I had my lowest ahi. 0.8
The only thing I did different was eat before bee.
It's been years since I ate before bed. I used to stuff myself before going to bed but got a bad case of GERD.
Thus, I was told not to eat 3hours before bed. Due to a cancer scare I took this advice and haven't eaten before bed except last night. And low and behold a got my lowest ahi.
I always knew I slept better eating before bed. But never had any data yo prove it.
However, I don't think I will eat before bed. EC is scarier than a few points on my ahi.

What did you eat?

I wouldn't bet the farm on one night's worth of behavior. I used to get a high AHI for one night and rack my brain tryin' to figure out what happened. I realized it was a waste of time. I wait until a pattern starts before I start to think of what behavior is giving me a good or bad sleep result.

Sheriff

I agree that one night isn't sufficient to judge impact. If you base your going to bed behavior on one night results you will end up believing all sorts of things are necessary for a good nights sleep.

In statistics defects, and AHI would probably fall within the realm of being covered by the statistics for defects, you would need five samples to have a real result.

That is it would take five nights of doing the same thing and evaluating the five nights as a whole to see if it had an impact. A sample size of seven would be better and would mean you could do your analysis on Saturday.

So if you wanted to see if a factor A had a benefit you would probably want to compare five days with it to see if it had an impact.

Even then there could be something else happening over time. This in statistics is secular variation.

ChicagoGranny wrote:What did you eat?

Seared ahi, I would think.

I ate two honey and oat bars before bedtime last night and had an AHI 4.6! That's the highest it has ever been. I do believe some foods or how much you eat does affect the readings. I'm much better off not eating, but then of course it could be the meds

Seajay

seajay wrote:I ate two honey and oat bars before bedtime last night and had an AHI 4.6! That's the highest it has ever been. I do believe some foods or how much you eat does affect the readings. I'm much better off not eating, but then of course it could be the meds

Seajay

While I don't have celiac disease, eating anything with gluten within 4 hours of bed time causes an increase in snoring and AHI.

Some people find they do sleep more deeply and soundly with a little bit of carbohydrate before bed. That may help you relax and use CPAP more effectively. I suggest if you try this you have protein and fat, too. Example--a few apple slices with almond butter; olives, cheese, and carrot sticks. Avoid sweet and sugary things.

However, there are real downsides to doing this:
1. It may help OR hinder your blood sugar control, depending on your metabolic issues.
2. It may trigger reflux, which can irritate your airway and make apnea worse.

Janknitz wrote:Some people find they do sleep more deeply and soundly with a little bit of carbohydrate before bed. That may help you relax and use CPAP more effectively. I suggest if you try this you have protein and fat, too. Example--a few apple slices with almond butter; olives, cheese, and carrot sticks. Avoid sweet and sugary things.

However, there are real downsides to doing this:
1. It may help OR hinder your blood sugar control, depending on your metabolic issues.
2. It may trigger reflux, which can irritate your airway and make apnea worse.

One thing you don't mention is that sleeping more heavily can actually make your apnea worse, as it can take your body longer to respond to an interruption in your breathing. So "sleep more deeply and soundly" can be a very bad thing. Any apnea incidents you have can last longer.

I find it frustrating that friends and family respond to hearing about my apnea problems with suggestions of things I can do to sleep more heavily/soundly. This was even more annoying before I had the CPAP, but now it has the added absurdity that it's probably someone I've explained "sleeping more soundly can make the apnea incidents last longer" to many times in the past, so their "concern" manifests more as indifference.

I'm diabetic, I eat a cup of Chili or Chile at bedtime 1 to 2 A.M. every night, take my insulin. AHI under 2, all the time. Jim

kazvorpal wrote:

Janknitz wrote:Some people find they do sleep more deeply and soundly with a little bit of carbohydrate before bed. That may help you relax and use CPAP more effectively. I suggest if you try this you have protein and fat, too. Example--a few apple slices with almond butter; olives, cheese, and carrot sticks. Avoid sweet and sugary things.

However, there are real downsides to doing this:
1. It may help OR hinder your blood sugar control, depending on your metabolic issues.
2. It may trigger reflux, which can irritate your airway and make apnea worse.

One thing you don't mention is that sleeping more heavily can actually make your apnea worse, as it can take your body longer to respond to an interruption in your breathing. So "sleep more deeply and soundly" can be a very bad thing. Any apnea incidents you have can last longer.

I find it frustrating that friends and family respond to hearing about my apnea problems with suggestions of things I can do to sleep more heavily/soundly. This was even more annoying before I had the CPAP, but now it has the added absurdity that it's probably someone I've explained "sleeping more soundly can make the apnea incidents last longer" to many times in the past, so their "concern" manifests more as indifference.

Please document this! Doesn't make sense to me. My AHI is much better the deeper my sleep.

kazvorpal wrote:One thing you don't mention is that sleeping more heavily can actually make your apnea worse, as it can take your body longer to respond to an interruption in your breathing. So "sleep more deeply and soundly" can be a very bad thing. Any apnea incidents you have can last longer.

It sounds like you haven't taken the time to get your CPAP therapy optimized so that you don't have events in any sleep stage. Smart CPAPers don't need to depend on "not sleeping deeply" to prevent events.

It would be a good idea to start a new thread and get help to optimize your settings.

xxyzx wrote:

LSAT wrote:

kazvorpal wrote:

Janknitz wrote:Some people find they do sleep more deeply and soundly with a little bit of carbohydrate before bed. That may help you relax and use CPAP more effectively. I suggest if you try this you have protein and fat, too. Example--a few apple slices with almond butter; olives, cheese, and carrot sticks. Avoid sweet and sugary things.

However, there are real downsides to doing this:
1. It may help OR hinder your blood sugar control, depending on your metabolic issues.
2. It may trigger reflux, which can irritate your airway and make apnea worse.

One thing you don't mention is that sleeping more heavily can actually make your apnea worse, as it can take your body longer to respond to an interruption in your breathing. So "sleep more deeply and soundly" can be a very bad thing. Any apnea incidents you have can last longer.

I find it frustrating that friends and family respond to hearing about my apnea problems with suggestions of things I can do to sleep more heavily/soundly. This was even more annoying before I had the CPAP, but now it has the added absurdity that it's probably someone I've explained "sleeping more soundly can make the apnea incidents last longer" to many times in the past, so their "concern" manifests more as indifference.

========


Please document this! Doesn't make sense to me. My AHI is much better the deeper my sleep.

~~~~~

lsat has a lot of bad advice
that is why he attacks others when he cant correct them with facts

Why does xxyzx always feel it is necessary to attack, even when he has not been mentioned? Mind your own business, asshole!

I have a real problem with food sometimes trying to eat low carb only to start back
eating a lot of carbs. I have noticed that when I try to start eating low carb my AHI is
typicaly about 2 higher than when I have a couple of cups of ice cream before bed.

Just recently I have run into a couple worrying medical issues (higher blood suger, higher blood pressure) and my Dr. was of little help. I've been trying to reduce carbs, do some intermittent fasting etc. which seemed to even make it worse.

Some research on the internet re: high fasting blood sugar led me into numerous articles on how the body dumps glucose into your system (morning syndrome), Cortisol, stress hormones from hunger etc. Many people that try intermittent fast run into the same issue with more severity. This causes troubled sleep etc. and could cause increased AHI.

Once I started including a snack (some yogurt and slow release carb - oat bran) before bed, my normal sleep patterns returned, blood sugar dropped to normal levels after 8 hour sleep, and my AHI numbers got better and I certainly just "feel" better overall. Hope this might help some....