AHI <1 for months, but I'm still exhausted every day. What am I missing?

cpapusern30i · Post by **cpapusern30i** » Tue Jun 23, 2026 8:29 pm

Hi everyone,
I've been using CPAP for several months now, and every day is pretty much like this. I'm still waking up tired with significant fatigue and brain fog.

My AHI is usually below 1, leaks are generally low, and OSCAR doesn't report much flow limitation, but I don't feel refreshed at all.

Here's my SleepHQ link:

https://sleephq.com/public/1a4596cf-0f6 ... b60101b210

I've looked at the flow rate graphs and some of the breathing looks irregular or jagged to me. I tend to wake up in the middle of the night, use the restroom, and go back to sleep. The very few leaks are just me adjusting the mask a bit before I sleep.

Could someone take a look and tell me if they see anything that might explain why I'm still feeling so exhausted despite apparently good CPAP numbers?

If you identify a likely issue, I'd also appreciate any suggestions on what changes or settings I should consider trying.

Thank you very much, all help is appreciated.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Tue Jun 23, 2026 8:44 pm

Having any nasal congestion?

Take any medications? If so, what?

It would really help people help you if you would keep all your questions to one thread. We can't remember you past history and I know you have several posts about this problem and we have no idea what was talked about.

You have something else going on....your reports say you should be improved and there's no setting on your machine that is needing to change.

You need to be having a heart to heart chat with your doctor about your fatigue.

cpapusern30i · Post by **cpapusern30i** » Tue Jun 23, 2026 8:53 pm

Pugsy wrote: ↑
Tue Jun 23, 2026 8:44 pm
Having any nasal congestion?

Take any medications? If so, what?

It would really help people help you if you would keep all your questions to one thread. We can't remember you past history and I know you have several posts about this problem and we have no idea what was talked about.

You have something else going on....your reports say you should be improved and there's no setting on your machine that is needing to change.

You need to be having a heart to heart chat with your doctor about your fatigue.

Hi,

Nasal congestion has basically been fixed with azelastine and Flonase.

The only medications I take are insulin and Ritalin (early in the day).

I fixed the issue of removing the mask during sleep by changing my pressure settings back to normal, but unfortunately I still don't feel any different; I eventually realized that mouth leaks were likely causing me to remove the mask, as at the higher pressures my mouth would open and leak quite severely- that's why I changed the settings back to normal.

At this point I feel like there still may be something going on with my flow rate because some of the breathing looks fairly jagged to me, although I'm not experienced enough to know whether that's actually abnormal.

My doctors haven't been especially helpful so far. I'm hoping to better understand what's going on before considering anything invasive, as in I really don't want surgery or Inspire unless it's truly a last-resort situation.

Thank you so much!

cpapusern30i · Post by **cpapusern30i** » Wed Jun 24, 2026 8:47 am

If someone could zoom in on my flow rates in the Oscar link that would be very helpful. I believe I may have UARS-type breathing but am not sure. I also highly suspect, as seen in my recordings, that many times my brain is waking me up as soon as a hypopnea/ apnea starts to form in many cases and so, regardless of what pressure I have (I have experimented with pressures from 7 to 15, with 14 being my titration pressure from my study I stay unrefreshed the whole night, even with AHI less than 0.5 and 1 (the machine doesn't catch many hypopneas or apneas because I'm waking up before they become them)

I believe something can be done with the EPR/ maybe raising the minimum a bit, but am not sure. If anyone recommends that I should also have OSCAR flag certain events, that would be nice as well.

I have copied the link below and also attached some images of arousal related breathing.
If anyone could take a look at these, I would be very grateful!
Best,
Samy

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Wed Jun 24, 2026 9:36 am

As explained numerous times to you....you can't diagnose UARS by looking at the flow rate on an OSCAR report because the machine doesn't record anything that points to UARS on anyone.
The ONLY way to diagnose UARS for sure is a sleep study done with a Pes device. You are wanting something that is simply not available on the reports from this machine or any cpap/apap machine for that matter.

How many times do you need to hear this before you will believe it?

You may have a sleep problem but there is no way for any of us to tell what it might be from the information the machine can give us.

If your doctors aren't helping....maybe it's time for new doctors.

alancalan · Post by **alancalan** » Thu Jun 25, 2026 2:04 pm

Even with my numbers getting better I'm getting tired or I wake up a little bit tired. I wonder if it could have something to do with not enough exercise. I need to get back on the tennis courts.

Yesterday I didn't check it but I looked at it today and yesterday I had an AHI 10 and with weeks not being so bad I'm still getting too many Central Apneas and I don't know where that came from and maybe that's part of the problem for me.

Machine	Mask	Humidifier

Additional Comments: & P30i

AHI <1 for months, but I'm still exhausted every day. What am I missing?

AHI <1 for months, but I'm still exhausted every day. What am I missing?

Re: Every day is like this. Still waking up exhausted despite low AHI. What am I missing?

Re: Every day is like this. Still waking up exhausted despite low AHI. What am I missing?

Re: AHI <1 for months, but I'm still exhausted every day. What am I missing?

Re: AHI <1 for months, but I'm still exhausted every day. What am I missing?

Re: AHI <1 for months, but I'm still exhausted every day. What am I missing?