What is going on here?

[jennymar]

When I first got my cpap, my AHI stayed at an average of 3. I quit checking the info on the SD card for a while, but after a check today I noticed that I am now getting numbers like this! I was hoping someone can help me figure out why? Last time I saw the doctor, she was not interested in looking at the information on the card. Should I be concerned?? Thanks!

[Pugsy]

How are you sleeping and feeling?
Waking often or sleeping soundly for the most part?

Any change in medications or sleeping positions?

Put on any weight?

[jennymar]

Am feeling a bit sleepy durring the day. Not waking up gasping for air like before the cpap, Only waking up around 2 times a night. I thought maybe my mask was leaking, but it doesn't seem to be according to the stats. No changes in meds, weight, or sleeping position. One night this week my ahi was almost 20.

[zonker]

in before someone asks how long you've had the machine. looks like since june this year, so that kind of rules out a failing machine, though anything is possible.

i'm no expert, but seems to me that these aren't "real" numbers that sleepyhead is reporting. if anyone really had that high of an ahi, i think they would feel like sh*t the next day. and you don't report feeling that bad.

so i will just sit quietly and read what my betters have to say.

i'm keen to see what this mess could possibly be.

[Pugsy]

i'm no expert, but seems to me that these aren't "real" numbers that sleepyhead is reporting. if anyone really had that high of an ahi, i think they would feel like sh*t the next day. and you don't report feeling that bad.

Well.....one of my very best days ever followed a night where the AHI was 10.6. I felt amazing and thought for sure the AHI just had to be 0.0. Back when this happened I didn't check my AHI until the evening so that I didn't "cloud" my day's perception by some numbers.
So bad numbers don't always equal bad feeling like we might think they would.

[Pugsy]

When results change we can't help but wonder what changed in our life to cause the change. Sometimes we have a clear cut culprit and sometimes we don't. Looks like this time we fall into the "don't" category.

We can't blame a lot of SWJ sleep/wake/junk false positives since you report sleeping soundly for the most part.

For some reason or other it appears you need more minimum pressure and more pressure for a considerable part of the night.
Usual culprits are supine sleeping or REM stage sleep.
REM usually comes in cycles and doesn't usually last the bulk of the night.
So maybe supine sleeping more now than in the past.

How old are you? Female? Any chance you are now going through pre or current menopause?

[zonker]

i'm no expert, but seems to me that these aren't "real" numbers that sleepyhead is reporting. if anyone really had that high of an ahi, i think they would feel like sh*t the next day. and you don't report feeling that bad.

Well.....one of my very best days ever followed a night where the AHI was 10.6. I felt amazing and thought for sure the AHI just had to be 0.0. Back when this happened I didn't check my AHI until the evening so that I didn't "cloud" my day's perception by some numbers.
So bad numbers don't always equal bad feeling like we might think they would.

the only experience i have had that comes close to this, now that i think of it, seems to confirm what you say. for a one hour period, sleepyhead reported that i had an ahi of 42!! i dismissed it as a glitch because i didn't feel horrible the next morning.

nor haddi ever have anything like that happen again.

so that seems to fit in with what you say somewhat.

[jennymar]

Menopause - Yes I am 48 and going through it. While I was waiting to get my machine, I was sleeping on my side to try to minimize apneas. Since getting the machine I have been allowing myself to sleep supine. The night I had my sleep study my AHI was in the 90's so 20 doesn't seem so bad. Yep it was pretty bad. I would guess that you are correct, I need higher pressure but why was it enough before I wonder.

[Pugsy]

Sleeping position may have been somewhat of a factor.
Hormonal changes may also be playing a factor here.
I never had one OSA sign or symptom until I hit menopause and then everything went south.
Everything started to sag....boobs, butt and airway tissues
Things just lose muscle tone and start to sag more with the hormone changes.

Looks to me like you are going to need a substantial increase in the minimum and hope that with better prevention the machine won't need to go quite so high. I am thinking somewhere around 12ish.

Menopause is a common factor in a lot of women developing or worsening OSA.

[Cokomo]

I would set minimum to 12 immediately.

[jennymar]

OK after seeing this, I am going to call to find out about raising the minimum pressure. How accurate can this information be?? I discovered that you can see how many seconds each event of OSA lasted. This was alarming. Over a minute on one?? How accurate is this??

[Julie]

We all raise (and on occasion lower) our pressures all the time without asking permission from anyone else. You can get the clinician's manual on Apneaboard for your machine and/or just ask someone here to help... it's your machine, your therapy and you're the 'customer'. Or is there a problem of nonpayment (insurance) should you actually experiment on your own?

[Pugsy]

Those times shown in seconds aren't exactly spot on but they will be very close.
Respironics machines don't flag event duration in seconds. Instead it uses some sort of marker system and those numbers are the markers and it's not always exactly event duration in seconds.

Example....you have one event with 8 in parentheses...events must last at least 10 seconds to earn a flag. There cannot be an 8 second apnea event of any sort earn a flag. Instead I bet if you zoomed in on that one flagged event and actually counted the seconds of no air flow or minimal flow that it barely meets the 10 second criteria for a flag.
You could do all those events ....zoom in and manually count the seconds...lots of work though and you won't likely find anything more than a 2 or 3 second difference between what you manually count and what is reported.

So they aren't exact duration but very close and close enough with all that you are reporting that it is a concern.
Over a minute????? A very definite possibility. Even if it was 5 or 10 seconds off...still scary as hell.
You really need to get those pressures optimized.

BTW....I did do that manual counting on over 100 events one time just to see how close those numbers in parentheses were....It was never off by more than 3 seconds.

[ChicagoGranny]

I discovered that you can see how many seconds each event of OSA lasted.

Which type of events are those in your attachment?

[jennymar]

Chicagogranny, those are obstructive apneas. Yes scary as hell! I also need to find out why my sleep apnea is so severe. What is causing it. I also wonder what kind of brain damage I might have suffered as a result. I have been having neurological symptoms similar to those of MS but nobody has been able to figure out what is wrong with me. Brain and spine MRI are within normal limits. I strongly suspect it is somehow related to the sleep apnea.