AHI creeping up - any advice?

[wolewyck]

Ugh, just when you think things are going well, stabilizing more and more, developing a nice reliable pattern. My AHI has been sneaking up so that my 7-day average has now broken through 5. I've been feeling pretty tired despite 7.5 to 8 hours sleep each night, earlier bedtimes, and more exercise. According to my machine, it's nearly all centrals-- obstructives remain at usually 0 to 0.2/hour. Any advice? I've tried a couple of masks, which didn't seem to make a difference. My doctor is suggesting increasing my pressure (currently at , which is fine-- but not sure how likely that is to help given that these don't seem to be obstructive events, assuming that the machine is coding them correctly, anyway. Not sure I'm going to be able to drag myself out of bed for the wedding tomorrow...!

[prefer2breathe]

I'm not a doctor but that sounds to me like your pressure should be dropped instead of increased.

[Alicia41964]

Ugh, just when you think things are going well, stabilizing more and more, developing a nice reliable pattern. My AHI has been sneaking up so that my 7-day average has now broken through 5. I've been feeling pretty tired despite 7.5 to 8 hours sleep each night, earlier bedtimes, and more exercise. According to my machine, it's nearly all centrals-- obstructives remain at usually 0 to 0.2/hour. Any advice? I've tried a couple of masks, which didn't seem to make a difference. My doctor is suggesting increasing my pressure (currently at , which is fine-- but not sure how likely that is to help given that these don't seem to be obstructive events, assuming that the machine is coding them correctly, anyway. Not sure I'm going to be able to drag myself out of bed for the wedding tomorrow...!

Wole, I feel your pain. I too, follow my numbers religiously and over the past few days, my events have gone from a few ( 0.9 to 2.9 ) to over 5.4. In looking at the detail, I am shocked to see that although most of mine are obstructive events, they are increasing in numbers and length. My longest thus far has been for 49 seconds. No wonder I've felt like poop this week. I've napped every day sometimes twice! My current pressure is 14 and I'm wondering if a call to my resp therapist is in order. I don't want to seem like a whiner, ya know? The only thing I can think of is that I am just getting over being really sick with pneumonia and Tuesday most of my meds stopped. That is the only variable that I can recall. My leak rates are still well under control. I like my nasal pillows and don't really want to switch masks.

Drag ourselves out of bed - we must! We have a life to live. Just remember to keep telling ourselves that. Good luck with your situation!

[Otter]

My AHI has been sneaking up so that my 7-day average has now broken through 5. I've been feeling pretty tired despite 7.5 to 8 hours sleep each night, earlier bedtimes, and more exercise. According to my machine, it's nearly all centrals-- obstructives remain at usually 0 to 0.2/hour. Any advice? I've tried a couple of masks, which didn't seem to make a difference. My doctor is suggesting increasing my pressure (currently at , which is fine-- but not sure how likely that is to help given that these don't seem to be obstructive events, assuming that the machine is coding them correctly, anyway.

Took me a minute to figure out that the "cool" smilie was 8 + )

In interpreting your data, I think it's important to determine whether or not you are fully asleep when the machine scores these "centrals". It could be that something else is disturbing your sleep, and the machine is scoring centrals when you transition in and out or while you are awake. If you have a video camera, it might be worth taping yourself. Maybe you have back pain or something and are tossing around about the time these new CAs happen.

I've seen the phrase "non-cpap responsive central apnea" here and there, which seems to imply that some central apnea can be prevented with higher pressure, but I have no idea how or why that would work. Maybe they just mean that central apnea does not respond to CPAP. If there is such a thing as cpap responsive central apnea, that might be why your doctor is suggesting the bump.