Asking a huge favour!

[reolhlains]

Hi all!
I'm wondering if I can please ask for some more help/advice.
Things were going great until about two weeks ago, when I noticed my AHI was right down to near zero. I hoped it would be a random night, but unfortunately it hasn't really improved and I'm feeling very [yawns] tired again!
Things were great when my AHI was in the 1s - it generally sat at about 1.9ish - but I've been down below 0.8 for the last couple of weeks.
Suspecting it may be caused by mouth breathing, I taped my mouth tight shut last night. I'd be surprised if it would have been possible to breath freely through my mouth (not easily anyway), but I still feel rubbish today (and my AHI was 0.5).
I've posted the sleepyhead dump below and wonder if you would mind please having a look and see if it says anything useful.
While messaging - how often should I be changing the nose part of the mask and the air filter.
Thanks a million

[Arlene1963]

The image is too small to see, and is not clickable.

[reolhlains]

The image is too small to see, and is not clickable.

Thanks Arlene!! Sorted and should now be clickable

[LSAT]

Hi all!
I'm wondering if I can please ask for some more help/advice.
Things were going great until about two weeks ago, when I noticed my AHI was right down to near zero. I hoped it would be a random night, but unfortunately it hasn't really improved and I'm feeling very [yawns] tired again!
Things were great when my AHI was in the 1s - it generally sat at about 1.9ish - but I've been down below 0.8 for the last couple of weeks.
Suspecting it may be caused by mouth breathing, I taped my mouth tight shut last night. I'd be surprised if it would have been possible to breath freely through my mouth (not easily anyway), but I still feel rubbish today (and my AHI was 0.5).
I've posted the sleepyhead dump below and wonder if you would mind please having a look and see if it says anything useful.
While messaging - how often should I be changing the nose part of the mask and the air filter.
Thanks a million

You think that your AHI dropped because you started to mouth breathe??????? All your numbers look fine. No sign of mouth breathing. Look for another reason for the way you feel. The drop in AHI is insignificant.

[LSAT]

i was going to post this as a new thread to explain it
and then you asked

but here is one possibility

woke up today to go to bathroom
as i went back to sleep i heard teh neighbors radio upstairs

did i wake up first and need to go
or did needing to go wake me up?

whichever my sleep was disturbed by something other than apnea

happened again this morning
only this time it was the guy upstairs running the shower first
then i realised i should use the bathroom

these made me realise that there is a LOT of noise in an apt that disturbs sleep
the a/c compressors outside are very noisy
i have almost learned to ignore them and not wake up
ditto for the footsteps above me but not the vacuum cleaner

loud talkers in the hallway or outside the building
radio tv stereo dishwashers washer/dryer and running water full on to fill the tub are all disturbing
and many of the neighbors have schedules that do not agree with other people so the noise will wake someone

i measured 55db for the tub filling
that is normal conversation level and too loud for sleeping

the noise from the bipap is nothing and easily ignored compared to the other sounds imposed on us

but i suspect that if you have problems there may be outside events that are disturbing your sleep such as noise

What does this have to do with the OP's question?

[Robear]

I don't understand the problem. I thought the goal was to lower AHI as much as possible. In fact, my doctor & various other sources, have indicated that less than 5 was considered "no sleep apnea". My highest AHI since 1/1/17 was 2.5 and average is 0.9. Once it was even 0.0. I continue to use cpap because I am sleeping more soundly, awaken more rested & am not nearly as tired during the day (altho' I still do fall asleep reading sometimes).

Isn't low AHI a good thing?

[D.H.]

There's no such thing as an AHI being too low! Zero is fine, and negative is impossible!

If you really are mouth breathing, your mouth would be very dry, given that you're wearing a nasal mask!

I would look for other reason for your tiredness, especially additional sleep disorders.

In addition, what else may have changed? For instance, new bed or bedding, new residence, new paint, carpet, or wallpaper, new job, new situation on old job, etc.?

BTW, you live in the land where CPAP was invented!

[Goofproof]

There's no such thing as an AHI being too low! Zero is fine, and negative is impossible!

If you really are mouth breathing, your mouth would be very dry, given that you're wearing a nasal mask!

I would look for other reason for your tiredness, especially additional sleep disorders.

In addition, what else may have changed? For instance, new bed or bedding, new residence, new paint, carpet, or wallpaper, new job, new situation on old job, etc.?

BTW, you live in the land where CPAP was invented!

All this time I have been saving my negative AHI numbers and using them to make up for the nights I am +, do you think that won't help afterall. Jim

[LSAT]

I don't understand the problem. I thought the goal was to lower AHI as much as possible. In fact, my doctor & various other sources, have indicated that less than 5 was considered "no sleep apnea". My highest AHI since 1/1/17 was 2.5 and average is 0.9. Once it was even 0.0. I continue to use cpap because I am sleeping more soundly, awaken more rested & am not nearly as tired during the day (altho' I still do fall asleep reading sometimes).

Isn't low AHI a good thing?

If you would stop using the machine, your AHI would return to where it was before treatment. CPAP doesn't heal...it treats while you are using it.

[palerider]

Things were going great until about two weeks ago, when I noticed my AHI was right down to near zero.

lower is better with AHI.

Suspecting it may be caused by mouth breathing,

you may be able to see mouth breathing, if you zoom in on the flow trace to where you can see individual breaths, if you search on the forum, Jay has a couple of threads where he discusses this, with flow examples.

how often should I be changing the nose part of the mask and the air filter.

when the mask cushion wears out, and when the filter is dirty, (and one of them is washable)

[palerider]

i was going to post this as a new thread to explain it
and then you asked

but here is one possibility

woke up today to go to bathroom
as i went back to sleep i heard teh neighbors radio upstairs

did i wake up first and need to go
or did needing to go wake me up?

whichever my sleep was disturbed by something other than apnea

happened again this morning
only this time it was the guy upstairs running the shower first
then i realised i should use the bathroom

these made me realise that there is a LOT of noise in an apt that disturbs sleep
the a/c compressors outside are very noisy
i have almost learned to ignore them and not wake up
ditto for the footsteps above me but not the vacuum cleaner

loud talkers in the hallway or outside the building
radio tv stereo dishwashers washer/dryer and running water full on to fill the tub are all disturbing
and many of the neighbors have schedules that do not agree with other people so the noise will wake someone

i measured 55db for the tub filling
that is normal conversation level and too loud for sleeping

the noise from the bipap is nothing and easily ignored compared to the other sounds imposed on us

but i suspect that if you have problems there may be outside events that are disturbing your sleep such as noise

What does this have to do with the OP's question?

nothing, like most of his posts.

[reolhlains]

You think that your AHI dropped because you started to mouth breathe???????

I think perhaps more a question of trying to troubleshoot what's going on. It seems logical to me that if the pressure is escaping, the machine won't pick up events and AHI will seem low, whereas in reality it's much higher. Do you think mouth breathing would increase CPAP machine reported AHI rather than decrease it?

Obviously I want a low AHI, but I know whether the machine managed to do it's job as soon as I wake up. Yesterday, after the photo I posted, I felt awful- exactly like pre-cpap days. I know the AHI of 0.5 can't be right.

Anyway, I changed the nasal part of the mask last night, albeit to a larger size than what I've been using as it's all I had, and it was like night and day difference. I've just woken up after nearly 7 hours of sold zzz's, feel amazing again and, looking at dream mapper, my AHI is back up to a reported 1.6 or something.

[reolhlains]

BTW, you live in the land where CPAP was invented!

I do- and, ironically, where it seems to be like three times more expensive than anywhere else in the world!!

There's no such thing as an AHI being too low! Zero is fine, and negative is impossible!

If you really are mouth breathing, your mouth would be very dry, given that you're wearing a nasal mask!

Totally- I'd love my AHI to be in the 0.somethings, but I know when it was it can't be a true reflection on my actual AHI- I had to consume a lot of caffeine yesterday!! And through the night I was drinking water whenever I woke up - mouth being mega dry.

I would look for other reason for your tiredness, especially additional sleep disorders.

Feck, I hope not!! I have a feeling my mask may have not helped, hence subconsciously opening my mouth. Hopefully the rest of this week will be like last night- was up bright and early this morning (and it's a cold wet Monday morning!

Thanks for the thoughts and for looking at the graphs though everyone- I really appreciate it

[reolhlains]

you may be able to see mouth breathing, if you zoom in on the flow trace to where you can see individual breaths, if you search on the forum, Jay has a couple of threads where he discusses this, with flow examples

Thanks Pale! I'll have a look at that and see. I should probably just get a FF mask, but things were going fine- could just have been time to change the cushion as you mentioned

[palerider]

Obviously I want a low AHI, but I know whether the machine managed to do it's job as soon as I wake up. Yesterday, after the photo I posted, I felt awful- exactly like pre-cpap days. I know the AHI of 0.5 can't be right.

the leaks have to be ridiculously huge for the machine not to be able to detect an apnea. I'd guess well over 150lpm on your machine. and yours aren't, in fact, yours are suspiciously low.