AHI of 6 (hypopnea only)

SleepingUgly wrote: BTW, did they break down your REM vs. NREM AHI? An AHI of 6 could mean that you had a very high AHI in REM but a lower one in NREM, averaging out to 6.

SleepingUgly's REM point is a good one to investigate, guest. Many people with apnea incur much higher apnea/hypopnea rates in REM. Your PSG sampled fewer than 40 minutes of REM, which might not be representative of how much time or ratio you spend in REM at home. Thus your typical AHI at home can be significantly higher than 6.

[quote="Guest"]I recently had a sleep study due to excessive sleepiness (unable to wake up in the morning without my husband forcing me - 2 hours of snoozing is common). I can manage forcing myself to get up and get through work, but the weekends are a joke. 12-18 hours sleeping a day is the norm on the weekends.

Thyroid, iron, etc ruled out. No big health issues - no snoring, small neck, low BMI, marathon runner, etc.

Sleep study results showed AHI of 6 - all obstructive hypopnea's. More happened when laying on the side than the back. Had a good amount of time in N3/"restorative" sleep though (35%).

Question is - can this mild case of apnea cause the drastic sleepiness effects that it is having on me? Considering that I'm getting good N3 restful sleep, I'm doubtful that the sleepiness is all due to the hypopneas.

Thoughts?

Thanks![/quote

Question is - can this mild case of apnea cause the drastic sleepiness effects that it is having on me?

Reply,

In my opinion NO ! Most likely the techs at the sleep clinic goofed. It happened to me too. Initially, when I started CPAPing a year ago, the sleep lab prescribed for me a low pressure of 6 to 7 cm on a CPAP. But I got on my own APAP a diagnosis of a much higher effective pressure of 14 cm. So I used this higher pressure till now. But lately I suffer from RES (Residual Excessive "Sleepiness") during the day. From the time that eat my breakfast at 8 a.m. (I am retired) till noon I can't function. Only after 1 p.m. I can do things. But my "Sleepiness" is not like yours. Going by its definition that after taking naps you get refreshed, it is not in my case. I can't fall a sleep during the a.m. in spite of my crappy feeling. So my Psychiatrist prescribed 0.5 mg of Alprazolam (generic XANAX) twice daily. One at 6 p.m. and one at 11 p.m. before I go to sleep. It's too soon to tell if it solved my problem. Last week I had a repeat sleep lab testing and this time the effective pressure came out at 13 cm in CPAP.

My take of all of this business is that sleep disorders are secondary to underlying medical conditions that most of us suffer from. The trick is to diagnose that medical condition and treat it. If not, then as we age that underlying medical condition (such as heart problems, kidney disease, diabetes, snore, neurological, peripheral neuropathy that I have, etc.) become worse and so is the sleep disorder. That's also the importance of repeated PSG testing at Sleep Clinics (should be annually) .


I agree with posts above that high Flow Limitation (= UAR=RERA) could cause an unproductive nightly sleep treatment which leads to Daytime Excessive Sleepines.

A good article about it:

http://erj.ersjournals.com/content/33/5/1062.full.pdf

See also my posts here about Flow Limitation:

viewtopic/t72938/Nasal-Spray-amp-AHI.html

Thanks for all the replies!

AHI in Nrem was 5.2, and AHI in rem was 11.2. The AHI appears to be in terms of RDI.

I typically get 8-9 hours of sleep during the week, thus the 4.8 hours of sleep at the sleep study is very atypical. Normally.. i lay down, am asleep like a light... and never wake up (to my knowledge) in the middle of the night.

The criteria they used was a > 30% drop of baseline nasal airflow and a >4% desaturation from pre event baseline.

Can any of this be related to nasal issues? I'm 99% sure i have a deviated septum, but not sure if that contributes.

Guest wrote:Thanks for all the replies!


Can any of this be related to nasal issues? I'm 99% sure i have a deviated septum, but not sure if that contributes.

Yes, deviated septum could cause Sleep Disorder. Read about it here on pg 218:

http://books.google.com/books?id=F1h1iy ... &q&f=false