Does an APAP let you snore?

Snorenomore · Post by **Snorenomore** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 6:21 pm

Ok so the primary reason I went to the sleep Doc in the first place was to minimize my snoring, that my wife says is louder than the afterburner of an F-18 Fighter jet.

I have a concern. Someone mentioned (I think it was Mikesus) that his APAP was recording “snores”. Does an APAP allow you to do audible snoring because the pressure is set so low? With my CPAP I know longer snore at all (I use a full face mask).

Snorenomore, whose wife will have a cow if he starts snoring again.

derek · Post by **derek** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 6:30 pm

Apparently so. Two nights ago I did my "experiment" of setting my APAP to CPAP mode at 5.5 cm H2O, and spent the night that way. Encore Pro reported a snore index of 121.7 for the night. Wow!

I always get a few snores reported each night: SI approx 8
derek

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Fri Feb 18, 2005 6:48 pm

Derek, when I did the same kind of experiment you did, I was using a 420E. I set high/low for 4.

Six hours of sleep - almost 2,000 snores got marked. I'd always been told (pre-cpap) that I snored terribly. I'd never heard them, but the experiment sure let me "see" them. And of course there'd have probably been more had I not been using even the small pressure of "4". Whew. With autopap running in the usual range I keep it at (9 or 10 - 16) no snores appear. Probably because I have my lower pressure up enough to keep them knocked out.

littlebaddow · Post by **littlebaddow** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 2:28 am

My good lady tells me that I still grunt and grumble a bit in the night, but that it's a significant improvement after years of high decibels.

Having just got the encore software to go with my remstar auto, I'm trying to get to grips with the jargon and understand the results. For example, last night in the daily events per hour table, it shows these figures in the row called 'snore'

17.8 6.7 9.1 6.7 7.3 15.0 0.0

Is this the number of times I snored at each pressure though how can you have a fraction of a snore

These correspond to pressures of 4 through 10
The figure shown next to the graph for 'Indices' is 8.4 for snore.

The total AHI is 0.5 which I assume to be good

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 2:58 am

littlebaddow, I'm terrible with math (and I may be completely wrong about this) but I think the left-to-right numbers you quoted from the table titled "REMStar Auto Daily Events Per Hour" are the percentage of your night that was spent "snoring". I could be stating this wrong, but I think it's more a measurement of amount of time you spent snoring at each of those pressures - not the number of snores.

The actual snores themselves, and when they happened, are shown as tick marks in the graph above that table....the graph called: "REMStar Auto Daily Details".

Yes, an AHI of 0.5 is very low...that's great!!! An AHI of 5.0 or less is considered good.

littlebaddow · Post by **littlebaddow** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 4:23 am

Thanks rested gal

I feel terrible questioning your advice - it's a bit like suggesting the earth is flat or that Liam isn't funny - but here goes anyway

The numbers add up to 62.6 so I'm not convinced they are percentages.
I can see the graph you mean and there is a fairly regular series of marks across it for snores. It's a bit difficult to count cos some of them are bunched together, but it looks like there might 50 or 60 or so. Unfortunately, it seems I can't show the the table & graphs here, cos I don't have a website, so I can't show you what I mean.

I suppose the acid test is that my wife is sleeping better cos my snoring doesn't disturb her anymore

rested gal · Post by **rested gal** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 7:11 am

LOL, littlebaddow - ALWAYS question anything I say (it's just opinion) and certainly question the heck out of my poor math notions!! My next wild guess....maybe it's minutes rather than percentage.

wading thru the muck! · Post by **wading thru the muck!** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 7:47 am

littlebaddow,

Those are the number of snores at each pressure. The reason you can have a fraction of a snore is because it's data. Look at it this way, if the pressure changes from 10cm to 11cm mid snore, you would have part in one pressure and part in the other. Here's my theory on why some users on cpap have a great AHI but still get a good number of snores. The air pressure of the cpap/apap is used as an air splint to keep the airway open enough to keep the air flow at acceptable levels. In many poeple this will resolve the snores also. In some people the physiology of their breathing passages may be such that even with the airway open there is alot of loose tissue to vibrate. In these cases the loud sound of the snores may be largely decreased but the vibration is still there.

derek · Post by **derek** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 8:37 am

The question is - what is a "snore" as far as Respironics is concerned? Is it every short "snort", or is there a minimum duration? How selective is the pattern recognition algorithm in discriminating among other acoustical events, such as cough, talking (or with CPAP "tawgig") or hose induced sounds (rubbing etc)? I don't expect anyone to have an answer, maybe I'll lie down on the bed for a few minutes and do some experimentation - fake snores, snorts, coughs, talking, lip farts (my term), etc. Then check what Encore says...
derek

Mikesus · Post by **Mikesus** » Sat Feb 19, 2005 9:00 am

derek wrote:The question is - what is a "snore" as far as Respironics is concerned? Is it every short "snort", or is there a minimum duration? How selective is the pattern recognition algorithm in discriminating among other acoustical events, such as cough, talking (or with CPAP "tawgig") or hose induced sounds (rubbing etc)? I don't expect anyone to have an answer, maybe I'll lie down on the bed for a few minutes and do some experimentation - fake snores, snorts, coughs, talking, lip farts (my term), etc. Then check what Encore says...
derek

I would be interested in your results!

When looking at the data I thought the fractional numbers were due to the amount of time slept. IE if you slept exactly 8 hrs you wouldn't see fractional snores, apneas etc as they are rated per hour. But most of us don't sleep exactly 8 hrs so the fractional amount remains because there wasn't an even amount of time to distribute it over... Any thoughts?

Does an APAP let you snore?

Does an APAP let you snore?

What is a snore?

Re: What is a snore?

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