Does PURSLEEP affect AHI?

[pedroski]

I've been using PurSleep for one week now. The first two nights I could only handle 1 hour and 2 hours, it blew my head off. I persevered because of the good reviews here. By using only one drop I have been able to tolerate & get used to it. But my AHI has dropped a couple of points and I'm wondering if it's something to do with the PurSleep or just a coincidence. My pre PurSleep average AHI was 7.7, post is 5.0. Any thoughts?

Peter

[-SWS]

Any thoughts?

Your AHI drop may be entirely unrelated to Pur-Sleep. If, on the other hand, your AHI reduction is in some way related to Pur-Sleep, then you have to wonder if the aroma therapy itself has a positive effect on your breathing physiology, or if the Pur-Sleep diffusion chamber itself slightly skews your machine's hypopnea detection (relative to your own breathing waveforms).

To isolate and test the diffusion chamber itself, you might consider experimentally using the chamber with no oils whatsoever. If your AHI elevates slightly at that point (over days or even weeks), then you might very tentatively postulate that those oils might somehow affect your own breathing physiology for the better.

But what if your AHI continues to stay low with the oil-less chamber in place? Then take that oil-less chamber out of the equation to see if your AHI resumes its former heightened level at that point (again, looking for a trend sustained over time). If it does, then you might very tentatively postulate that the diffusion chamber itself just may slightly skew event detection in at least some cases, including yours.

Not a purely scientific test. True. But you may be able to get a vague idea if: 1) adding essential oils to the equation makes your AHI go down in a beneficial way (I'm entirely amenable to this possibility, BTW), 2) adding nothing more than the diffusion chamber itself impacts your AHI measurements, or 3) there really seems to be no long-term correlation between your AHI measurements and any of the Pur-Sleep components.

Again, not a purely scientific experiment by any stretch. So take it only for what it's worth. But an interesting case study perhaps.

[pedroski]

SWS, Thanks for your input, there's some good ideas there. I'll keep on the PurSleep for another week to give it a fairer time frame, and then I'll remove the essential oil & use the chamber only for two weeks to test that. Incidentally my wife loves the aroma wafting out of my mask and says it helps her sleep better as well.

Peter

[SleepGuy]

Peter, I understand that you're using one of the oils with lavender, which was recently shown to enhance sleep in humans. This may have something to do with it. The abstract from the study states:

“Aromatherapy is an anecdotal method for modifying sleep and mood. However, whether olfactory exposure to essential oils affects night-time objective sleep remains untested. Previous studies also demonstrate superior olfactory abilities in women. Therefore, this study investigated the effects of an olfactory stimulus on subsequent sleep and assessed gender differences in such effects. Thirty-one young healthy sleepers (16 men and 15 women, aged 18 to 30 yr, mean+/-SD, 20.5+/-2.4 yr) completed 3 consecutive overnight sessions in a sleep laboratory: one adaptation, one stimulus, and one control night (the latter 2 nights in counterbalanced order). Subjects received an intermittent presentation (first 2 min of each 10 min interval) of an olfactory (lavender oil) or a control (distilled water) stimulus between 23:10 and 23:40 h. Standard polysomnographic sleep and self-rated sleepiness and mood data were collected. Lavender increased the percentage of deep or slow-wave sleep (SWS) in men and women. All subjects reported higher vigor the morning after lavender exposure, corroborating the restorative SWS increase. Lavender also increased stage 2 (light) sleep, and decreased rapid-eye movement (REM) sleep and the amount of time to reach wake after first falling asleep (wake after sleep onset latency) in women, with opposite effects in men. Thus, lavender serves as a mild sedative and has practical applications as a novel, nonphotic method for promoting deep sleep in young men and women and for producing gender-dependent sleep effects.”

Goel, N, Hyungsoo, K, Lao, RP (2005); An Olfactory Stimulus Modifies Nighttime Sleep in Young Men and Women; Chronobiology International Vol. 22, No. 5:889-904.

As for amounts of oil, the sense of smell varies widely from person to person. One drop appears to be enough for most people--I find that it works best when the aroma is something faint, in the background.

I'm very interested to see how your case study progresses here.

[pedroski]

Thanks Bret,

Interesting quote there. Interesting note about women having a superior sense of smell. I've been going to the gym and have noticed my muscles feeling better, which I had put down to the normal process of becoming accustomed to exercise after having had insufficient exercise for many years, but I wonder if an increase in slow wave sleep may be contributing to that too?

Peter

[-SWS]

Again, not a purely scientific experiment by any stretch. So take it only for what it's worth. But an interesting case study perhaps.

I'm very interested to see how your case study progresses here.

I agree, SleepGuy. I'm also interested in seeing how things shape up. However, the more I think about it, the more I think "case study" was not a good term on my part. I say that because that term "case study" has more credible connotations than any home-based experiment reported on a message board should ever really have in my opinion.

"Home experiments" serve our individual needs to tweak therapy and sometimes even satisfy our curiosity. But, "home experimentation" cannot really give us purely scientific conclusions IMHO. Regardless, I'm usually interested in following most home experiments that people write about. .

[SleepGuy]

SWS, agreed and I would also point out that the Pur-Sleep products should not be thought of as being therpaeutic per se. There may be some incidental therapeutic benefits (and I think there probably are, as with lavender).

Rather, these products are aromatic--they make your cpap smell good and good smells typically help people feel relaxed and calm. Nothing is better or faster in improving mood and emotion than pleasant aromatics.

And I also agree that "home experimentation" is a better term. Results will always vary and attributing cause and effect to a scientific degree of certainty will be challenging.

Peter, it's nice to see your numbers going down! Hope that means you're getting better sleep and feeling better, too!

[siirandler]

I think I got more and better sleep last night than ever. I have been using Pur-Sleep for a couple weeks now and I continue to find it helpful. I am keeping track of which essential oils I use each night so I can compare against my records that I will get from my smart card. I am excited to see how my numbers look, but in any case I thoroughly enjoy the relaxation I get from the pleasant aromas. I no longer dread going to bed, and I go to bed earlier knowing that my mask will be far less daunting than it used to be. I know it's anecdotal and we cannot read much into it, but as unscientific as it is it might prove helpful to some.

I am glad I found out about my need for xpap therapy and I am grateful it is making such a difference in my life. Thanks also to everyone on the boards for your thoughtful insights and suggestions. I know I would not be having the success I am in my treatment without this board. I certainly read a lot more than I post!

[Sleepy-eyes]

(Check out the essential oils thread. viewtopic.php?t=17513&start=150) I can't say the Pur-Sleep system actually lowered my AHI numbers, but I believe it helped me sleep better, more restfully and comfortably and my numbers have been 0.9 or under for the last week. Somthings going on, for sure. I think Bret is on to somthing here.

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