Question about Software

[DayofLavos]

Hi everybody--

Last night marked my first time ever using a CPAP. I'm using a DeVilbiss Intellipap. It was a predictably strange experience, but I did pretty well

I have a question about APAP software. I looked at my results this morning with Smartlink and saw no apneas and a handful of hypopneas, with AHI of around 5. This is probably a stupid question, but I assume a lower AHI means the therapy is working, right?
Living in Europe, I still have to wait six weeks (!) for the results of my sleep study and wanted to get started ASAP on my own. So while I have all the symptoms of apnea, I don't have a confirmed diagnosis yet.

I had originally assumed the software would give me a kind of home "sleep study" that would show me the full extent of my apnea and allow a kind of self-diagnosis.
But, if the therapy is working, most of those events won't show up in my results, right?

Still learning the ropes, thanks for your patience

[DeepBreathing]

Hi DayofLavos, welcome to the forum

As a newbie myself I'm still learning the ropes, but I do agree with your assumption. If you're on treatment, and the treatment is working, you will get a greatly reduced number of apnoeas. The machine can't diagnose an apnoea until after you've stopped breathing for ten seconds. But if the treatment is working, then you won't stop breathing (or at least not nearly as often). You need the sleep study results to confirm the diagnosis.

[Hawthorne]

It sounds like you are doing fine. The Intellipap does register a lot of hypopneas so don't worry as long as your AHI is 5 or under.

Cpap use will not eliminate all events so don't expect that. If you hold your breath will moving in your sleep it will register an event so some then are false.

[DayofLavos]

Thanks for your responses!
As I'm sure is typical for somebody trying a CPAP for the first time, my sleep was a bit fitful and fragmented last night and interrupted by some intense rainout in the tube. Probably best not to draw any conclusions from one night, and I'll be using a heated hose tonight.

As I've said, I'm still waiting on the official diagnosis, but this all comes after years of increasingly bad fatigue and depression. I sleep eight hours every night, sometimes I take two naps, I drink coffee all day, and I'm still always exhausted. My depressive symptoms are completely random, and a therapist I was seeing agreed that I seemed to have some undiagnosed medical condition.
Plus...father has apnea, grandfather had apnea, and I've been scaring the women away with my snoring for the past couple of years.

If it looks like a duck, etc. etc.

I've been lurking on the forum for a bit of time and have been surprised to see so many stories similar to my own!

[Hawthorne]

You've come to the right place! Welcome.

You seem to be a classic sleep apnea sufferer but you are on the way to feeling a lot better!

[robysue]

I have a question about APAP software. I looked at my results this morning with Smartlink and saw no apneas and a handful of hypopneas, with AHI of around 5. This is probably a stupid question, but I assume a lower AHI means the therapy is working, right?

There are no stupid questions.

And yes, the lower AHI means that therapy is working. The handful of hypopneas you saw on the report are the hypopneas that got through the defenses---they're the ones that happened in spite of the extra air pressure.

I had originally assumed the software would give me a kind of home "sleep study" that would show me the full extent of my apnea and allow a kind of self-diagnosis.
But, if the therapy is working, most of those events won't show up in my results, right?

Right. The events the machine prevents don't happen and hence they can't be recorded. The only events you see in your data are the ones that sneak through the defenses provided by the machine.