AHI and Symptoms

Happy new year folks!

New here, and thanks for any replies - I will try and return the favour in kind!

I have seen this issue mentioned a couple of times across this site, but I wondered if anyone else had anything else to add...

I am a 30 year old CPAP user, having produced results of 20 and 26 AHI following two separate home sleep studies... My machine is a Philips Auto DreamStation and I am collecting data on the DreamMapper app.

My app is reporting an average AHI of about 3.7-4 most nights, and I'm consequently feeling pretty fatigued, hazy, unfocused and generally rubbish. I have a large Central (clear airway) element, which is usually not far behind the obstructive count... Hypopneas are always high, usually about 20 odd. Symptom wise - not a lot different to when I started with the machine (one year ago).

My machine was programmed by London Sleep Centre in Dubai to be auto adjusting according to my 'needs'.

I am due in a few months to meet a new specialist, now that I am living back in London, but in the interim wanted to ask what could be causing my poor health during the day, and why a seemingly respectable AHI score isn't always reflective of reality. Does anyone else share the same? What advice is there to drive AHI lower still? How are people finding it easiest to sleep on their side and not on their backs?

Any input would be warmly received... Thanks in advance.

James

Hi, what machine and model are you using? Which mask? At what pressures? Using the ramp feature? Do you sleep on your back (or end up there most of the night once asleep - it provokes more apneas)?

Julie wrote:Hi, what machine and model are you using? Which mask? At what pressures? Using the ramp feature? Do you sleep on your back (or end up there most of the night once asleep - it provokes more apneas)?

Julie...Read his post..carefully

I really shouldn't do this so early! THx!

Welcome, James!

Please fill out your equipment profile - https://www.cpaptalk.com/ucp.php?i=prof ... pment_info
For easy reference, it will then show on each post.

JTB1987 wrote: I am collecting data on the DreamMapper app.

This app provides very limited information for managing your therapy. The best tool is Sleepyhead, https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead

JTB1987 wrote:What advice is there to drive AHI lower still?

We can give you better advice after seeing Sleepyhead screen shots of some typical nights.

JTB1987 wrote:My app is reporting an average AHI of about 3.7-4 most nights

If you sleep 7 hours and have an AHI of 4, this is being awakened 28 times per night - not a healthy way to sleep.

JTB1987 wrote:wanted to ask what could be causing my poor health during the day

There are many things that could be wrong - some that are related to your CPAP therapy, and some that are not. The first thing that should be done is to make sure the CPAP therapy is effective. Sleepyhead is the best tool to analyze this.

Thanks for these replies!

ChicagoGranny - I downloaded this app, thanks, but am not able to post images on here, how do you do it?

.. FYI I have done blood tests, I am otherwise healthy, my symptoms I am sure are solely related to apnea... Thanks for the concern and support.

How to post images (I prefer imgur but you can use any photo hosting website).
https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur

For examples of what we like to see (don't want or need all those graphs)
viewtopic/t103468/Need-help-with-screen-shots.html

How to organize those graphs.
https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead/shorganize

Please note....Do NOT do the full screen toggle thing that is mentioned in the instructions. There's a bug in SH that pops up with some operating systems and makes it a real PITA to get out of the full screen toggle in SH.

JTB1987 wrote:my symptoms I am sure are solely related to apnea...

... because, like the rest of us, your sleep hygiene is perfect, your exercise routine is perfect, you eat a perfect diet, you handle stress perfectly, you are perfectly socially adjusted, you go to bed every night with a smile on your face, ...

Sorry, I couldn't resist.

But, it could well be that getting your CPAP therapy optimized will bring you most of the way to where you want to be.

Thanks guys..

Took a while figuring out the SleepyHead app then the Imgur app..

I only really understand AHI, types of events, and don't know if things like my pressure settings are correct (they are on auto)..

Can post more and different data if needed. Much appreciated.

James

Can you turn off the pie chart (SleepyHead Preferences/Appearance tab remove check mark) so the AHI and machine information and settings can also be seen?
Also don't do a screen shot zoomed in on anything. Get a screen shot of the detailed page without zooming in. If we want zooming in we will ask.

From this quick zoomed in image it looks like your minimum pressure of 4 isn't going very far (max of 6.40) so the machine doesn't seem to want to increase the pressure much for some reason or other.

I am thinking maybe increasing that minimum to maybe 5 or 6 and see if some of those events shown on the events graph clean up a bit.
It's probably not an urgent thing but it is something I would do if it were my report.

I don't know what the maximum setting is because the settings part of the report is absent and we can't tell if the max didn't go higher because it couldn't or because it didn't want to.

So can you get your image to look more like this one and try to resize it so the leak rate will show up?