What is your personal ideal AHI?

[napstress]

I gather that the general rule of thumb is to have an AHI < 5.0 as a goal for CPAP therapy. But there seems to be as many responses to therapy as there are people who are on it. What AHI consistently leaves you feeling refreshed upon awakening, with sufficient energy and mental clarity throughout the day, and in generally a good mood?

[Pugsy]

I rarely feel "refreshed" in the mornings but then I never was a morning person to start with. Never ever had brain fog but the need to nap pre-cap was really bad. So I judge by my need to nap or not.

If I can keep my AHI less than 2.5 I am content. Seems like when I see AHI above 3.5 I can tell the difference in how I generally feel.

My biggest thing is hours asleep. I can have the most awesome numbers and only get 6 to 6 1/2 hours of sleep and feel draggy all day and want to nap. When I get 7 to 8 hours of sleep then I can actually feel the good numbers and don't need to nap.

[Carl LaFong]

Everyone's different, but I'm guessing the most "normal" hours sleep with the lowest AHI is the ticket. Unfortunately, our cpap's can't measure sleep stage and that is the real key. The more time you spend in NREM 3 the better. My best numbers ever to date are 7.5 hours sleep and a .6 AHI. I felt wonderful all day and well into the night. But generally anything below 5 is good for me.

[Lizistired]

Mine is more about arousals than AHI. My AHI is great, but that alone doesn't make me feel great.

[LinkC]

ALARA!

(As Low As Reasonably Achievable)

That's an acronym from an industry I used to work in. Anyone else familiar with it?

[napstress]

Mine is more about arousals than AHI. My AHI is great, but that alone doesn't make me feel great.

Hmmm...I'm not sure what you mean. By "arousals" do you mean that you include RERAs? What else, along with the AHI, contributes to your feeling great?

[Carl LaFong]

(As Low As Reasonably Achievable)

Spoken like a true fed wonk.

[Lizistired]

Mine is more about arousals than AHI. My AHI is great, but that alone doesn't make me feel great.

Hmmm...I'm not sure what you mean. By "arousals" do you mean that you include RERAs? What else, along with the AHI, contributes to your feeling great?

LOL, My AI is great, consistantly <1, but I don't feel great. I'm happy if I feel good. I know how bad I feel without the mask so as long as I wear it I'm better.
My machine doesn't score RERAs. Something disrupts my sleep... noise, pain, mask leaks... I'm really not sure. I turn over a dozen times a night. I will say for the most part, pain is better than it was.

[jazzer4]

To feel really good all day and have lots of energy and not want to nap I need to be below .03
Also more than 2 or 3 centrals leave me tired during the day.

If I could just go to bed, go to sleep and stay that way for even 6 hours I would feel very good.....I think???

[Muse-Inc]

Feel best AHI <1 with 0-1 wakeups and close to 8 hrs of sleep

[SleepingUgly]

What AHI consistently leaves you feeling refreshed upon awakening, with sufficient energy and mental clarity throughout the day, and in generally a good mood?

Refreshed upon awakening??? energy and mental clarity through the day??? AND a good mood???? BWAHAHAHAHAHA!!

Sorry.

[ems]

Feel best AHI <1 with 0-1 wakeups and close to 8 hrs of sleep

Couldn't have said it better myself.

[Kody]

Still trying to get everything dialed in, but so far the lowest was a 4.0 and I felt VERY good. Although not a morning person either, so hoping out of bed feeling all refreshed is not going to be in the cards at least until I get coffee and a shower.

[robysue]

For me its a complicated dance between the insomnia, the AHI, and the headaches (both TMJ and migraines)

Typically I notice it in terms of daytime functioning if any one or more of the following is an issue:

• AHI > 2.5ish
• Total Sleep time < 5 hours
• Total number of apneas+hypopneas > 10 (regardless of total sleep time and/or AHI)
• Number of wakes > 4
• Number of restless periods > 0 (A "restless period" is when I'm drifting in and out of sleep for at least 20 minutes after getting to sleep in the first place. Even ONE restless period typically leaves me wiped out during the day.)
• More than a fleeting migraine twinge (Maxalt takes care of eliminating the pain if I have a moderate to severe migraine, put the concentration problems typically remain)
• Any tension headache that hangs around more than 30 minutes
• Moderate TMJ pain either during the night (leading to restlessness) or during the day (leading to tension headaches and TMJ headaches)

Obviously, the more of these things that happen simultaneously, the worse I feel.


When do I feel at my best? When all of the following occur simultaneously:

• AHI < 1.5ish
• Total Sleep time between 5 1/2 and 6 1/2 hours
• Total number of apneas+hypopneas < 10 (regardless of total sleep time and/or AHI)
• Number of wakes < 3
• Number of restless periods = 0 (A "restless period" is when I'm drifting in and out of sleep for at least 20 minutes after getting to sleep in the first place. Even ONE restless period typically leaves me wiped out during the day.)
• No headache pain of any sort

And I'm getting there. About half my days now qualify as days where I feel pretty good. On those days, all or almost all of these things happen.

[Perrybucsdad]

The best AHI I have had to date (I have been only CPAP'ing for less than a month) has been 1.8, and the strange thing about that, it was also the night I had the least amount of sleep, but I felt fantastic that morning. Very odd, but I welcomed it.

I keep thinking of the AHI as like a golf score. You want it as low as you can go, and if it is higher this morning vs yesterday morning, I'm upset. I shouldn't be unless I did something wrong that caused it to be higher, or if it is way out of whack.