Sleeping on your side to lower AHI?

[ICantGetNoSleep]

I recently came across this site selling an anti snore shirt which claims to reduce snoring by making you sleep on your side. To prevent you from sleeping on your back, there are three foam inserts attached to the back of the shirt.

I have been on APAP for about 6 months and have an AHI average of about 3.5 and would like to lower it. I was wondering if I used the shirt along with my APAP and slept on my side, would my AHI go down? I currently sleep in all kinds of positions, including on my back.

[JZ]

If you want to give it a try, you can rig up your own device rather than purchase one. Put two or three tennis balls in a sock and pin the sock to the back of your PJs.

Nothing wrong with an AHI average of 3.5. I personally would not go to great extremes to reduce my AHI below 3.5 (for me the tennis balls or foam inserts would be extreme because they would keep me awake) .

[AnneO]

save yourself some money. Sew a tennis ball on the back of a shirt. It will work the same way.

Anne

[track]

Some people are very position sensitive and others are not. I can't get my AI below 1.2 or my AHI below 5, if I sleep on my back and sometimes it goes as high as 3 AI and AHI 8...doesn't make any difference if I take the pressure up to 14-18 apap..I still have an AI of one or more. The duration of my apneas are much longer on my back as well.....I have had a few as high as 50-60 seconds on my back over a 9 month period. On my side I routinely do not have more than 1-3 apneas PER night or .1-.5 per hour and they are no longer than 10-15 seconds....I still get some hypoapneas but resmed machines always record them high. My AHI on my side is generally less than 4.

I have found tennis balls and foam pillows to be ineffective in keeping me off my back. I have even used hard baseballs taped to my shirt and I will lay on them. I stick a soccer ball under my t shirt and then a belt around my waist to hold the t-shirt in place and that does the trick. My pressure on my side needs to only be 8-10 on apap and I can ramp it at 8 for 45 minutes and get no apneas during that period.

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): Ramp, APAP

[Bearded_One]

An AHI of 3.5 is in the normal range. It may be interesting to see if sleeping positions impact AHI, but beyond curiosity I wouldn't see any practical reason to try to lower it below 3.5.

[RosemaryB]

I'm someone who definitely feels worse if my AHI is above 1 or 2. Once I consistently started having nights around 1.0, I felt discernably better overall. Remember, that 5 is an arbitrary cut-off, not a magic number. Each of us is different.

No need to buy one of those shirts. If the tennis balls work for you, fine. But if not, you might try what I did. I stuffed a pillow in a small backpack so it was "full" I wear this to bed every night. It was easier to get used to than the cpap mask . It does make a difference for me. This was free, since I already had the backpack and pillow. If you find it works for you and still want to try the shirt, you could still do that.

The other reason that I sleep on my side is to help control GERD, so I'd do it anyway. But it does lower my AHI by a couple of points. If it does that for someone else who averages 3.5 or so, it would mean that there would be fewer nights above 5.0, since 3.5 is an average, and if you have a "bad night" where it's higher, you will no longer have that bad night if you can bring the overall average down.

Everyone's different! The only way to tell if it will make a difference for you is to try it. If you can do it for free, you might as well try it, IMHO.

[roster]

[quote]An AHI of 3.5 is in the normal range. It may be interesting to see if sleeping positions impact AHI, but beyond curiosity I wouldn't see any practical reason to try to lower it below 3.5.

[RosemaryB]

[quote="rooster"][quote]An AHI of 3.5 is in the normal range. It may be interesting to see if sleeping positions impact AHI, but beyond curiosity I wouldn't see any practical reason to try to lower it below 3.5.

[track]

I hear comments like this often on this forum and I have yet to understand them. If you sleep seven hours with an AHI of 3.5, this is like being choked about 24 times in a night. Is that really normal? Or do people just mean there is no practical way to lower it?

I don't equate HIs with being choked...especially when you have a resmed machine. A reduction in breathing as an HI is during sleep may even be a normal thing...if it's an event at all. I have had HI recorded on my machine while watching TV in bed while awake. A 3.5 AHI might be no more than an HI every 20 minutes or so. Compared to having a bunch of long AI without treatment or even with treatment, an AHI of 3.5 that is all or mostly HI is practically being cured in my book.
From my perspective, using my machine, it's all about the AI. It's not uncommon for me to have an AHI of 3.5-4 but with only one or two AI a night lasting less than 15 seconds. ....I am elated with numbers like that....whether the medical community calls that normal or not.

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): resmed, AHI

[Guest]

Here are my averages for the past 6 months from Encore Pro Analyzer

Events: 22
Apneas: 12
Hyponeas: 10
Flow Limitations: 8.5
Snores: 90
AHI: 2.9 (machine number is higer as some days are missing when I download the data )
OAI: 1.6
HI: 1.3
FLI: 1.1
SI: 12.1
Time in Apnea: 2.4 min.
Apnea duration: 16.5 seconds

[ICantGetNoSleep]

Here are my averages for the past 6 months from Encore Pro Analyzer

Events: 22
Apneas: 12
Hyponeas: 10
Flow Limitations: 8.5
Snores: 90
AHI: 2.9 (machine number is higer as some days are missing when I download the data )
OAI: 1.6
HI: 1.3
FLI: 1.1
SI: 12.1
Time in Apnea: 2.4 min.
Apnea duration: 16.5 seconds

That was me not logged in

[RosemaryB]

I hear comments like this often on this forum and I have yet to understand them. If you sleep seven hours with an AHI of 3.5, this is like being choked about 24 times in a night. Is that really normal? Or do people just mean there is no practical way to lower it?

I don't equate HIs with being choked...especially when you have a resmed machine. A reduction in breathing as an HI is during sleep may even be a normal thing...if it's an event at all. I have had HI recorded on my machine while watching TV in bed while awake. A 3.5 AHI might be no more than an HI every 20 minutes or so. Compared to having a bunch of long AI without treatment or even with treatment, an AHI of 3.5 that is all or mostly HI is practically being cured in my book.
From my perspective, using my machine, it's all about the AI. It's not uncommon for me to have an AHI of 3.5-4 but with only one or two AI a night lasting less than 15 seconds. ....I am elated with numbers like that....whether the medical community calls that normal or not.

[track]

The other reason that I sleep on my side is to help control GERD

Rosemary....why does sleeping on ones side help control GERD? Does that mean sleeping on ones back is bad for GERD. I thought there was often some connection between taking in air on cpap in the stomach and GERD and sleeping on ones back is generally recommend to minimize aerophlagia.

[RosemaryB]

The other reason that I sleep on my side is to help control GERD

Rosemary....why does sleeping on ones side help control GERD? Does that mean sleeping on ones back is bad for GERD. I thought there was often some connection between taking in air on cpap in the stomach and GERD and sleeping on ones back is generally recommend to minimize aerophlagia.

.

I started trying to sleep on my side before cpap because my GI doc said it would help GERD. It has to do with the way the stomach and esophagus are positioned. It allows the acid to stay put more readily. So I'd always go to sleep on my side. Before my sleep study I didn't realize that I would soon move to my back and spent a lot of time there. Now I just use the backpack technique.

I do have some aerophagia, but it has decreased over time. I'm kind of more gassy in the a.m., but a good round of aerobic exercise first thing in the morning helps with that . It's true that side sleeping will increase aerophagia in some people.

So, like many things it's a trade-off based on personal factors. Since my aerophagia is not so bad, I side sleep. If it was unbearable like some, waking me in the middle of the night, I'd be sleeping on my back for sure.

There is a relationship between aerophagia and GERD, too. GERD can cause the throat to stay open rigidly, and air goes down there. I try to keep my GERD under control. I jump thru a lot of hoops to do that. I take a PPI, sleep with the head of my bed elevated, sleep on my side, don't eat after 5:30 or 6:00 at night, watch what I eat (no spicy or greasy foods). As long as the GERD is controlled the aerophagia is, too.

[track]

Thanks Rosemary...that's some very helpful info. Does it make any difference which side you sleep on? I think I am going to buy a back pack today. The soccer ball is so big and bulky I want to try something different.