First Time 0 AHI

[monarch22]

About 2 weeks ago I went in and changed my machine to auto mode and have been able to get a little info instead of no info. My AHI has been showing between 3-5. Lowest was 3 until last night when it showed 0. I'm happy about that, but I didn't have the best sleep. My mask was moving all over the place, my nose is extremely sore, which never happens, and my mouth was dried out! So, what does this all mean? Does it just mean that I didn't sleep as well (and as much) so there were less opportunities for apneas to occur? But what about my nose and mouth? It makes since that the dryness would be caused by my mouth being open, but I don't usually sleep with it open.

Just when you start to feel like things are making a little sense a new problem rears its ugly head! Just wanting thoughts from the more experienced...

[Pugsy]

Dry mouth using nasal pillow type of mask that shows in your profile will indicate that your mouth came open quite a bit.
It is entirely possible that the 0 AHI is because you slept so fitfully that you didn't get to the stages of sleep where the events might occur. Nose sore plus you admit to mask problem.. Too tight and lots of moving stuff around will make nose sore.

Bad night with mouth open (even if you didn't know about it) and fiddling with mask a lot will equal feeling crappy, despite having really good "numbers". Some of my "best" days feeling wise, happened to me when I had some rather crappy nights if I looked at the numbers. Go figure that one. But in general there are so many things that will affect how we feel so we can't go by that magic AHI number.

Some people try so hard to keeping chasing that 0 AHI that they tighten things and fiddle with things, then actually make themselves feel worse. Your AHI of 3 is really quite good for being new to this treatment.

All that aside, sometimes we just have worse nights than others regarding the mask fit.

[DocWeezy]

I've discovered that for me, 0 AHI means I didn't sleep very deeply or very well at all. I tend to feel best when my AHI is around .3 to .8 because I think I've had deeper sleep which means an occasional apnea or central.

Pugsy is right about chasing the numbers. Find out what feels best for YOU. We're all different and you need to find your personal "sweet spot" that gives you the best, most restful, sleep...no matter what the numbers say in the morning. The real hassle in all of this is the time it takes to experiment and discover what works best for you.

Weezy