Having higher AHI numbers improves sleep?

[Yousuf]

So ever since I got my CPAP machine a few years ago, I've used it on the sleep settings that the doctors and technicians had setup for me. It seemed to be working just great, eliminating almost all events, my AHI numbers were often zero, and usually below 1. However, I don't think I ever had a really refreshing sleep most of those days. I'd often get up to go to the bathroom, several times a night, so I think I'd never really enter deep REM sleep before I had to go to the bathroom again. So I recently (well, in the last several months) learned about how to enter the clinician mode of my machine. I finally decided to test out some drastic changes to my program on my own. I decided to re-enable the auto CPAP trial mode, and rescan my ideal pressure settings. I set the minimum pressure to 7.0 and the max to 15.0, and let the machine float around between those two.

So I've been running the trial for only a couple of nights, so far. But I've noticed some interesting patterns. The machine is mainly floating around the minimum pressure setting of 7.0, so far the average pressure has only been 7.2, which is lower than my original fixed pressure setting. This has resulted in my AHI numbers going from under 1.0 on average, to over 1.0 but still below 5.0. This would seem like it's a backwards development, but somehow I've found myself sleeping longer, less bathroom breaks, and waking up more refreshed! The number of hypopneas has increased dramatically, but the obstructive and central apneas are still quite low. Previously, I had a fixed pressure setting of 9.0. Do you think maybe doctors had over-prescribed my pressure, with the goal of eliminating all events, but not necessarily what was actually ideal for me?

[zonker]

Previously, I had a fixed pressure setting of 9.0. Do you think maybe doctors had over-prescribed my pressure, with the goal of eliminating all events, but not necessarily what was actually ideal for me?

probably.

which machine do you use?

is it compatible with oscar software?

if so, get the oscar software and post some graphs here. without the information that oscar can show us, we have nothing to go on but guesses.

and you wouldn't want that, would you?

[Jlfinkels]

Following up on Z's sage advice. If you don't have OSCAR you can download it from:

https://www.sleepfiles.com/OSCAR/

Pop a 16 GB or 32 GB SD card into your machine, then in the morning after stopping your session put the card into your computer to load it into OSCAR. If you don't have an SD card reader, you will need to get one. From there many on the forum with expertise interpreting OSCAR data can help.

[Yousuf]

Previously, I had a fixed pressure setting of 9.0. Do you think maybe doctors had over-prescribed my pressure, with the goal of eliminating all events, but not necessarily what was actually ideal for me?

probably.

which machine do you use?

is it compatible with oscar software?

if so, get the oscar software and post some graphs here. without the information that oscar can show us, we have nothing to go on but guesses.

and you wouldn't want that, would you?

I have a Dreamstation 1, and I'm having some problems getting Oscar to read the data on the SD Card. I'll post a separate question on that, and I'll get back here after that situation is fixed.

[Yousuf]

Okay, it turned out that it just took an unbelievably long time for Oscar to import the SD Card data. I eventually just copied the data into the SSD, and it went much faster that way. Anyways, Oscar warned that there was data in it that it had never seen before, and that I should zip it up and send it to the developers for them to study. Do you guys still want to see its data, or should I send the data to the developers first?

[zonker]

Okay, it turned out that it just took an unbelievably long time for Oscar to import the SD Card data. I eventually just copied the data into the SSD, and it went much faster that way. Anyways, Oscar warned that there was data in it that it had never seen before, and that I should zip it up and send it to the developers for them to study. Do you guys still want to see its data, or should I send the data to the developers first?

go ahead and post.

i'm curious as to what it says.

[Yousuf]

Okay, it turned out that it just took an unbelievably long time for Oscar to import the SD Card data. I eventually just copied the data into the SSD, and it went much faster that way. Anyways, Oscar warned that there was data in it that it had never seen before, and that I should zip it up and send it to the developers for them to study. Do you guys still want to see its data, or should I send the data to the developers first?

go ahead and post.

i'm curious as to what it says.

Okay what part of the Oscar data do you guys want to see?

[zonker]

Okay what part of the Oscar data do you guys want to see?

i'll let grumpyhere tell you-

The easy way to set the OSCAR graphs in the preferred order and format:
1. Go to View menu - Reset Graphs - Standard
2. In View menu, turn on Sidebar
3. Again in View Menu turn off Daily Calendar and Pie Chart

May need to adjust the size a little bit to fit all 5 graphs within one screenshot.

[Yousuf]

So you guys want to see a screencap, is that what you're saying?

[zonker]

So you guys want to see a screencap, is that what you're saying?

yes.