Rising AHI

For the past year I had been pretty proud of myself because my nightly AHI was seldom higher than .6 - .8 with my Airfit P10 pillows. But a month or so ago I started getting occasional readings in the 1 - 2 range. That's obviously not that bad but it still bothered me. The other interesting aspect was the higher AHI readings didn't seem to make me more tired. If anything I felt a little better. But I believe I have come up with the reason for the change.

When I was getting the AHI reading of less than 1, I seldom slept more than seven hours a night. It dawned on me that the higher readings began about the time I started logging 8 to 9 hours a night on my pillow mask. I suspect that more time on the mask equates to more time leaks and other things that could affect AHI. Looking at my Sleepyhead data most of my high readings seem to be occurring in the last couple of hours each night. I tend to toss and turn anyway and moreso in the early morning hours -- even though I feel very comfortable in bed (almost impossible for me to sleep without CPAP now). I guess I'll just quit worrying unless the numbers start edging up around 5.

zorki1c wrote:For the past year I had been pretty proud of myself because my nightly AHI was seldom higher than .6 - .8 with my Airfit P10 pillows. But a month or so ago I started getting occasional readings in the 1 - 2 range. That's obviously not that bad but it still bothered me. The other interesting aspect was the higher AHI readings didn't seem to make me more tired. If anything I felt a little better. But I believe I have come up with the reason for the change.

When I was getting the AHI reading of less than 1, I seldom slept more than seven hours a night. It dawned on me that the higher readings began about the time I started logging 8 to 9 hours a night on my pillow mask. I suspect that more time on the mask equates to more time leaks and other things that could affect AHI. Looking at my Sleepyhead data most of my high readings seem to be occurring in the last couple of hours each night. I tend to toss and turn anyway and moreso in the early morning hours -- even though I feel very comfortable in bed (almost impossible for me to sleep without CPAP now). I guess I'll just quit worrying unless the numbers start edging up around 5.

You didn't say what your pressure settings are.
Typically, the longer you sleep, the more you transition from deep sleep stages to REM stages. If you're using a range of pressures on your Autoset, it may be that you're having events with no precursors (flow limitations or snores) and the pressures are not able to rise to prevent them.
If you're getting up for a potty break before then, it's not unusual to have more events after that......maybe we're more relaxed after relieving ourselves.


Den

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