Why higher AHI with lower mask leaks???

[Peacenana]

All,
I can't figure out why on nights when my mask leaks are low my AHI is much higher than normal for me. My sleep medicine doctor is also baffled by this. I've struggled with leaks for a long time and now that that problem seems to be solved, I've watched my AHI climb. My AHI was always below 1 - now up to almost 5. That's high for me.
Thanks for any light you can shine on this.

[robysue1]

Two ideas immediately come to mind that might explain the higher than expected AHI:

1) If the leaks were sufficiently large and sufficiently long, it's possible that the machine was having enough trouble tracking your breathing to accurately flag apneas during the large, long leaks. So just how bad were the leaks, both in terms of size and length?

2) Now that the leak problem is solved, it's possible that you are sleeping more deeply, and that when you are more soundly asleep your apnea is worse than when you are in lighter sleep. It may also be that you are spending more time in REM if you are sleeping more soundly because the leaks are no longer causing you to wake up or arouse.

[Dog Slobber]

Post some graphs, people can comment on your actually therapy instead of speculating on you partial information.