AHI goal.

[Jcastellaw]

I’m sure that the goal for AHI is 0.0 but that’s an allowable ahi? I know doctors want under 5 but I’d like as low as possible. I’ve been playing with my minimum pressure and I’ve bounced all over the place.
My question is: how long should I leave my pressure at a certain lever before I get a good average at that level?

I’ll post some sleepyhead charts but just curious if I should leave my pressure the same for several days before I change it.
Thanks in advance.

[Thumper68]

I tend to use pressure changes for a week to evaluate that change. In the beginning I was chasing pressure too often. As you are probably finding out we sleep different night to night due to the many other factors that affect our sleep.

[Jcastellaw]

That’s kinda what I was thinking. So say, 5-7 days and how much would you change the minimum pressure?

[realshelby]

With help and knowledge from this site, I have tweeked my base pressure and what mask I use many times. I would go up and back 1/2 point of pressure, then go up 1 and so on. Now at 6.2-20.

My AHI averages under 1.

But it varies from a couple zeros to 1.8 or so on occasion.

So unless you see something in the Sleepyhead chart that indicates more starting pressure is needed, I would go at least 4-5 days before making slight tweaks to pressure. Or to exhalation relief. I am lucky in that I have found the humidity and temperature settings I am content with and never change those.

Different masks make a recordable difference in my AHI scores. But not more than 1 point.

[Pugsy]

My question is: how long should I leave my pressure at a certain lever before I get a good average at that level?

just curious if I should leave my pressure the same for several days before I change it.

We have zero way to answer this question without seeing what is happening now and what that AHI is composed of with just guessing and I don't like just guessing.

You might need more pressure but you might not.
All depends on what that AHI is composed of.
More pressure won't do thing if the bulk of your AHI is central in nature. More pressure doesn't fix centrals.
Now if the bulk of your AHI is OA/hyponeas which are obstructive in nature then yes more pressure is usually what is advised.
So we don't know what your AHI is and we don't know what it is composed of...so can't really offer anything but a guess.

You don't want to go making any changes based on just 1 or 2 nights of data. We don't sleep the same each night and we can have fluke nights where there is a big change in results. Unless an urgent need is present for a change...a week's worth of data is a good baseline.
Urgent meaning a high obstructive in nature AHI and you know you were asleep when those obstructives got flagged.
Awake flagged events of any kind simply have to be removed from the evaluation of pressure needs.

[loggerhead12]

My goal is 1. I feel good around 1. 0 is better, but it's a unicorn that shows up on its own every once in a while. Don't chase unicorns.

2 doesn't sound all that far from 1, but it means you're waking up 16 times in an 8-hour night instead of just 8 times. That's huge.

Heck, people without sleep apnea wake up once per hour. Yeah, 1 is a good place to be.

[djams]

I’m sure that the goal for AHI is 0.0 but that’s an allowable ahi? I know doctors want under 5 but I’d like as low as possible. I’ve been playing with my minimum pressure and I’ve bounced all over the place.
My question is: how long should I leave my pressure at a certain lever before I get a good average at that level?

Just don't lose sight of the "get a good night's sleep" goal along the way.

Like Thumper68, I would change my pressure weekly. There's no usually reason to rush it. But we don't know with no SH charts.

[Jcastellaw]

Thanks guys. I’m gonna leave it where it’s at and post some charts in 7 days or so.

[palerider]

I’m sure that the goal for AHI is 0.0 but that’s an allowable ahi? I know doctors want under 5 but I’d like as low as possible. I’ve been playing with my minimum pressure and I’ve bounced all over the place.
My question is: how long should I leave my pressure at a certain lever before I get a good average at that level?

Just don't lose sight of the "get a good night's sleep" goal along the way.

Like Thumper68, I would change my pressure weekly. There's no usually reason to rush it. But we don't know with no SH charts.

Just to reinforce what djams said... when you're 'fine tuning', you have to work with *averages*, since sleep varies from night to night... don't diddle with the settings just because you had an off night... now, if you're having a string of off nights, then it warrants investigation.

[Dog Slobber]

Just to reinforce what djams said... when you're 'fine tuning', you have to work with *averages*, since sleep varies from night to night... don't diddle with the settings just because you had an off night... now, if you're having a string of off nights, then it warrants investigation.

This will be obvious to p.r. and most experienced SleepyHead users, but many novices might benefit. I'm quoting his post for context.

SleepyHead has a good mechanism for comparing prescription changes. At the bottom of the Statistics Tab, SleepyHead will display a list include AHI with a demarc for every prescription change. Using this tool, you can easily see the Average AHI and days for every unique prescription.

SH_stats.png

Dark Red - Worse AHI
Light Red - 2nd worse AHI
Dark Green - Best AHI
Light Green - 2nd best AHI

You can also use it to create an artificial demarcation if you want to see if there is another change that might impact your AHI.

For example let say you are changing some medication and you want to see if it affects your AHI. Say your pressure is 12-20cm. Change your pressure to 12-19.8cm, this won't change your therapy, but it will create a demarc point on the SleepyHead chart where you started the new medication.

Now you can easily compare your AHI pre and post medication change. Of course, you need to give your averages some time to settle.

Last night I started some CBTi Therapy to help with night awakenings. I changed my max to create a demarcation point. Now I'll be able easily see if it impacts my AHI.

[Jcastellaw]

This is an Idea where I’m at.

[Jcastellaw]

Puggy, let me know what you think.

[Pugsy]

How are you sleeping and feeling in general?
I see one break in therapy for sure last night...why?
Were there more times where you woke up but you didn't turn the machine off?

How is your nasal congestion? Having much or is the nose clear for the most part?

Answer these questions and I can better offer an opinion.

[zonker]

<snip>
Last night I started some CBTi Therapy to help with night awakenings. I changed my max to create a demarcation point. Now I'll be able easily see if it impacts my AHI.

let us know how it goes for you. i've heard of this therapy. in fact, i think there was some discussion about it the first year i got here.

i'd be curious to see how it goes.

[Jcastellaw]

How are you sleeping and feeling in general?
I see one break in therapy for sure last night...why?
Were there more times where you woke up but you didn't turn the machine off?

How is your nasal congestion? Having much or is the nose clear for the most part?

Answer these questions and I can better offer an opinion.

I feel decent when I wake up. So much better than when my AHI was 17. I’m guessing I woke up to go to the bathroom. No nasal congestion and I’m breathing really well. I use Zicam if I get congested. It’s awesome.