My untreated AHI was 50, and with CPAP my best thearapy gives me an average AHI of about 2. When I tried 4, 5, and 6cms I got an AHI of about 6.5. All I learned from trying low pressures is that for me they are surprisingly, but not entirely effective. Depending on your response to low pressures, se...

Xyrem has a very short half life - i.e. it is metabolized very quickly. When it is prescribed for Narcolepsy, it is usually prescribed to be taken once right before bed, and then a second dose about 4 hours later. If you are not taking it twice a night, I think that you should talk with your doctor ...

I have low testosterone that is probably not related to OSA. I also have a lot of trouble with taking enough to alleviate the symptoms of hypogonadism without causing me an enormous amount of grief with various types of bone, joint, nerve and muscle pain. Because of a sharp increase in the pain issu...

Lots of good advice in this thread. To summarize so far and add a few possibilities: Other sleep problems: Ineffective CPAP therapy, RLS/PLMD, narcolepsy, alpha-wave intrusion, etc. Sleep hygiene issues. Lifestyle: Diet, lifestyle, fitness. Sleep hygiene (again). Medical maladies: general health and...

I must be a slow recoverer, because 5 month into it, I still need more than 8 hours a night to feel rested!

Maybe there is nothing slow about your recovery at all, and you just need more than 8 hours a night to feel rested.

I was reading a book yesterday. I think it was Gerard Lombardo's "Sleep to Save Your Life." In it he describes how the sleep deprivation caused by apnea can give rise to parasomnias that just plain go away with CPAP. I was also surprised to learn that certain genetically inclined individuals have sl...

Having one night's numbers being "twice" as bad as the previous (or subsequent) isn't anything to worry about at all. I've got a stable CPAP routine with no real issues, and about one third of the time my AHI's vary by a factor of 2 or more from one night to the next. Even when we get everything sor...

If your depression is caused by your sleep and health being trashed by sleep apnea then treatment for your sleep apnea will help you. My overall mood has improved with CPAP, and I certainly wouldn't trade my headgear for my old mood.

Good luck.

Even a little bit of pressure can do a lot of good, so the auto machine can't tell your brother how serious his untreated apnea is; but if the machine shows that it wants to ramp up pressure, and that pressure is controlling events to some degree, and especially if he is feeling better, then he has ...

Three things: I'd say that it is not at all uncommon to see multiple local minima, i.e. wiggles, in the various graphs. This is due, at least in part, to the fact that apneas, hypopneas, and snoring usually respond best to different pressures. I've observed this watching my own data, as well as that...

Sleep paralysis and hypnagogic/hypnapompic hallucinations can be caused by any sort of sleep deprivation, but they are also common symptoms of narcolepsy. Sleep paralysis is the manifestation of REM atonia (paralysis) while falling asleep or waking, and can be anything from the inability to move a f...

In the Pacific Northwest I find that I don't need a humidifier. I certainly did at first, but not anymore. My doctor supports my not using one if I don't seem to need it. As far as I'm concerned, I'm happy to have one less thing to fuss over.

I have a couple of thoughts on why an AHI of at least 5 is considered a criterion for the prescription of treatment for sleep apnea. William Dement, in his book "The Promise of Sleep," describes many experiments that his lab has conducted. One of those experiments found that a period of sleep must l...

These machines have to be able to tell when you are breathing in and out in order for C-Flex and EPR to be able to work, and these exhalation relief methods do indeed work. So since these machines can tell when you are breathing, they can certainly tell when you are not, and hence they can report ap...

So that's what I've been chasing, thinking the zero events is what I need to make me feel like that again. There you go! One could drive him/herself crazy chasing the elusive zero. Not everyone will be able to obtain an average AHI of 0.2 or less. By careful experimentation, just try to get the bes...