Airsense 10 shows <2 AHI still wake up with headache

[Papstruggler]

(edit added Oscar screenshot)
Hi All,

I'm wondering if the CPAP Machines AHI number is to be trusted. I don't know if I'm actually getting good therapy or not because while I wear my cpap every night most nights I still have very early morning awakenings with a headache. When I do wake up with the headaches 9/10 times I wake up like this on my back and my mouth is dry so I feel like I've been having some events. I am perplexed though because when I take a look at my CPAP Machines Sleep Report I sometimes have 0.9 AHI but I feel like crap and have a pretty bad headache that's hard to fall back asleep with.


So with all that background I'm wondering if anyone knows if the AHI number is to be trusted on our machines. Or is mine not reporting correctly? During my first sleep study I had an average AHI of 14.92 Then later I did a at home follow up study and had 3 AHI for two consecutive nights (without cpap). Dr said this could be due to my throat being less inflamed from snoring because using a cpap in the previous days/weeks allowed my throat to not be inflamed....my wife says I do not snore though and if I do it's very occasionally <1% of my time asleep id say. So I'm lost here in what to believe in. I do know I feel like crap if I don't wear my cpap and sleep though even that can be a toss up. I've went off on a tangent here but my main concern is even though I'm wearing my cpap and it's saying I have a AHI less than 2 in my sleep report why am I still waking up to headaches? These headaches always go away about 10-30 minutes after I'm awake too. I think I'm going to crank my pressure up to 10. Right now I have it set APAP to be between 4 and 6.

Thanks for any thoughts and discussion all!

[Pugsy]

Do you wake up with a headache every day?
How long does your headache last? Fade away in an hour or two or have it last must longer??
Do you wake up with a headache with or without cpap use?
Any other health issues?

I don't see anything on the report that just screams "fix me and your headaches will go away".
And yes...these machines are accurate.

Have you talked to your doctor about these headaches? There are lots of reasons for headaches besides sleep apnea.

[Jdougc74]

Making large changes to pressure is not good, you might experience other symptoms, ie Aerophagia and have extreme stomach pain.
I am not sure that EPR does much when your minimum is only 4 cm. Maybe a more experienced person can help here with. Many say that value is too low for an adult.
How long have you been on this CPAP journey? Do you have any other conditions or are you on any medications that might effect your sleep therapy? Good luck.

[Papstruggler]

Hi Pugsy thanks for taking a look!

Do you wake up with a headache every day?

No not every day. But sometimes multiple times a week. Other times, not any.

How long does your headache last? Fade away in an hour or two or have it last must longer??

Fades away in a hour or two if not shorter than that. More like 30 min.

Do you wake up with a headache with or without cpap use?

I used to when I didn't use a CPAP and that's kind of what triggered the whole series of questions from the Dr. Do you wake up with a dry mouth, do you gasp for air, do you have morning headaches...etc. Maybe I'll give it a go a few nights without CPAP. I just notice I always have a rougher morning, more interrupted sleep and I have terrible nightmares and wake up on my back with a headache is usually the things that happen without CPAP.

Any other health issues?

No other diagnosed health issues.

[Pugsy]

Do you happen to have one of those overnight recording pulse oximeters to check O2 levels during the night???

[Papstruggler]

Making large changes to pressure is not good, you might experience other symptoms, ie Aerophagia and have extreme stomach pain.
I am not sure that EPR does much when your minimum is only 4 cm. Maybe a more experienced person can help here with. Many say that value is too low for an adult.
How long have you been on this CPAP journey? Do you have any other conditions or are you on any medications that might effect your sleep therapy? Good luck.

Hi J Doug,
Yea I thought some of those things might happen. I've been using my cpap for about a year now. It look me nearly 2 years to finally "come into it" I had nearly given up many times and never really liked it but now I feel like a part of me is missing if I dont sleep with it. I struggled a lot with the feeling of not being able to blow out completely so EPR was a great help in overcoming some of that. When I first started I went through a lot of nasal masks, however I just couldn't feel "normal" breathing through them. Even though my nose wasn't blocked I just always felt like I had to fight to keep the air from rushing out my mouth which never really let me deeply relax. Finally I started using a F20 Air Touch mask and that's my favorite and only mask that I sleep with. It's comfortable for me and I feel like I have plenty of room to breathe out? I bet that sounds kinda funny but It feels much easier to breath out in a full face with air dispersed then a nasal mask with air shooting straight into the holes for me at least...

- I've used 4-6 on APAP for as long as I've used the machine. Sometimes I've bumped it up to 4-7 or 4-8 and never noticed any real difference. I think the highest AHI my machine showed was 2.9 in my year of using cpap every night for the past year. I've always kinda wondered is the machine right, was my original test that showed I had 14.9 average AHI correct.

[Papstruggler]

Do you happen to have one of those overnight recording pulse oximeters to check O2 levels during the night???

I do not. Sounds like it could be worth investing in one to rule that out? Though In the 3 take home sleep studies with no cpap on my O2 sat never went below <90 or <95 I don't remember which.

[Pugsy]

Ask your doctor to order the overnight recording pulse oximeter that way you won't have to buy one.
It's usually covered by insurance too. DMEs can do the test.
I seriously doubt that your headaches are related to low oxygen but it is one thing to rule out.