PAP, Alcohol, and AHI

[2flamingos]

Over the years I have seen numerous posts about how alcohol makes AHI increase. I must be an anomaly! I hate to admit, bu I have had a few too many adult beverages a time or two recently. my AHI after those evenings were 0.9 and 0.5 respectively. AHI normally is in the 1.5-2.5 range. Has not gone over 3 in a few months. I attribute the normal range to a well fitting mask (Swift FX) and my new machine (S9 Auto). On the other hand, I don;t know to what I should attribute the even lower numbers after having imbibed a little more than I should have.

[LSAT]

If the higher numbers came from your old machine and if it happened to be a Resmed S8...they tended to overstate hypopnias. I found that when I was using an S8 my AHI averaged about 5-6 and since I have been using a S9 my AHI averages 2-3.

[kteague]

Just curious, how does the pressure your machine reaches on your S9 auto correspond to the (fixed?) pressure you used before?

[Dive Apnea]

Alcohol has no affect on my AHI, I have done extensive research.

[quietmorning]

I'm not sure if it makes the apnea worse or it just prevents you from waking up IF you DO have an apnea event, lowering your chance of survival if your air way closes. . . I think stating that it makes your apnea worse is the easier thing to tell people.

I'm a lightweight and have never been able to drink more than a half a glass of wine without getting sloshed - so I stay away from it, any way. Recently I read that a glass of red wine can help give you more deep sleep, so I tried it one night. The next morning was horrid. Full massive headache - I had a cluster that looked like I just could not climb out of. The overall apnea was no worse from that time, but the individual apnea events were MUCH longer. Won't do that again.

[Pugsy]

Doesn't alcohol disrupt the normal sleep architecture? I wonder if someone had less REM sleep..and their OSA was worse in REM sleep...wouldn't the lack of normal REM maybe allow for a slightly lower AHI?

Here they talk about a brief REM rebound then they talk about REM suppression.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alcohol_use_and_sleep

[Todzo]

Over the years I have seen numerous posts about how alcohol makes AHI increase. I must be an anomaly! I hate to admit, bu I have had a few too many adult beverages a time or two recently. my AHI after those evenings were 0.9 and 0.5 respectively. AHI normally is in the 1.5-2.5 range. Has not gone over 3 in a few months. I attribute the normal range to a well fitting mask (Swift FX) and my new machine (S9 Auto). On the other hand, I don;t know to what I should attribute the even lower numbers after having imbibed a little more than I should have.

A couple of guesses: You drink a reasonable ammount (no more than two drinks if you weigh 200 pounds). You are happy on CPAP.

I think you may have developed some "slack" in what pressure would work for you (you could probably go lower) so the depressent aspect (less muscle tone) does not result in obstruction. Your system may be just a bit happier with a bit less breathing caused by the initial depressant aspect and perhaps the rest allows you to power through the "rebound" of the available energy an hour or two later.

We all drink differant stuff and what we consume with it is differant and how we actually metaboize it is differant. Be glad it makes a match!

Have a lot of fun!

Todzo

[blueh2o]

I track my alcohol intake with my sleep log. In my personal case, there is NO correlation with the amount of alcohol I drink, or don't drink, on a given night and my energy levels the next day. A lot of doctors want to blame too much alcohol for problems so that's why I started tracking in the first place. Given, that I drink 50% of what I used to drink since I just don't have the energy anymore.

[Denial Dave]

when I 1st started CPAP therapy, I noticed that if I had had 2-3 beers at night, my AHI would double.

But now, it doesn't seem to affect my AHI.... but it does affect my sleep and how I feel in the AM