New Sleep Study - Keep Using CPAP?

My CPAP machine, which I've used every night for several years, has for the last couple of years shown very low AHI - between .5 and 2.0. So at my last check-in with my sleep doctor, I requested a sleep monitor study (at home). The sleep study showed an AHI of 5.6, with Oxygen averaging 95% (the lowest reading was 89%). Prior studies, both at home and in the lab, showed an AHI of around 11. After this latest study showing a 50% reduction, I'm wondering whether I should continue using the CPAP machine or not.

Has anyone here been faced with this question, with these sorts of numbers? If so, if you discontinued, what was your experience?

One reason I started using CPAP was because my wife complained about my snoring. So if that were to become a problem, it would be another factor in my decision. But, putting that aside, what about just quality of sleep? Sometimes (often), after a night on CPAP I feel "blown out" when I awake. I noticed that I didn't feel that way after my CPAP-less sleep study. Subjectively I felt pretty good throughout the day - at least as awake as I feel after a night on CPAP.

Anyway, just looking for some feedback...

Depending on what equipment was used to perform your latest study, your sleep study summary will show what positions you slept in, for how many minutes and what the AHI was.

It could be that you have moderate or worse sleep apnea on your back and mild on your sides. Check your sleep study summary and let us know what it says.

Note: It's common for sleep apnea to be worse when sleeping on the back.

My understanding is that if you have an AHI of 5 or higher, a CPAP is recommended.

lahlah1 wrote:My CPAP machine, which I've used every night for several years, has for the last couple of years shown very low AHI - between .5 and 2.0. So at my last check-in with my sleep doctor, I requested a sleep monitor study (at home). The sleep study showed an AHI of 5.6, with Oxygen averaging 95% (the lowest reading was 89%). Prior studies, both at home and in the lab, showed an AHI of around 11. After this latest study showing a 50% reduction, I'm wondering whether I should continue using the CPAP machine or not.

Has anyone here been faced with this question, with these sorts of numbers? If so, if you discontinued, what was your experience?

One reason I started using CPAP was because my wife complained about my snoring. So if that were to become a problem, it would be another factor in my decision. But, putting that aside, what about just quality of sleep? Sometimes (often), after a night on CPAP I feel "blown out" when I awake. I noticed that I didn't feel that way after my CPAP-less sleep study. Subjectively I felt pretty good throughout the day - at least as awake as I feel after a night on CPAP.

Anyway, just looking for some feedback...

How long had you been "off" of your CPAP therapy when they did the sleep study?
In other words, did you use CPAP the night before your sleep study or did you not use your CPAP for several nights to a week before the study?
If you didn't take some nights off of your CPAP before the sleep study, the results would be suspicious. I've always heard it is best to not use it for a number of nights because there MIGHT be some residual effects to skew the results.

It didn't take me long to get to the point where I couldn't sleep without it and couldn't imaging NOT using it at this point.
In my opinion, if a person who has been using this therapy for at least six months can up and stop using it, then they never achieved "good sleep" with it.......and are only trying to fool themselves.
I got "addicted" to good, oxygenated sleep in short order. I can't imagine going back to pre-therapy, suffocating sleep at all.


Den

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Kohkie wrote:My understanding is that if you have an AHI of 5 or higher, a CPAP is recommended.

generally, a CPAP in not prescribed for AHI of 15 or under, unless other issues are severe enough, like respiratory distress. If you have AHI over 5 and below 15, you are told you have "mild" sleep apnea. there is not enough evidence that reducing from AHI of 15 by use of CPAP or any other method leads to longer life.

If it were me, and I had a CPAP machine and my values were close to 5.6, I would still use the CPAP machine.

GGF

Thanks to everyone for the feedback. It is strange, I think, that they only allow you to do a one-night sleep study at home, given that there might well be wide variations different nights. Anyway, I'm sticking with it for now - but I won't fear skipping a night or two if circumstances demand it.