High Hypopneas with CPAP therapy

Hello!

I’m a CPAP newbie. Diagnosed with mild sleep apnea after knowing something was up with my sleep for at least 10 years but I didn’t know how to explain the sudden body jerks waking me up each time I fell asleep the right way to make a doctor take another look and decide to have me take a sleep study. I had been complaining of fatigue and memory issues to my doctor and she asked how well I sleep. That started the beginning of this path.

I started using a nasal pillow mask and Dream Station machine mid-May and after a month the dr said I was within the range for AHI. He set my machine to 8cm. I was noticing I was getting higher “in range” AHIs of 4 or 4.5 during the first month. The doctor said some people that’s the best they can get. I also noticed the breakdown of obstructive central and hypopneas was very uneven. The number for obstructions was an average of 1-3 but my hypopneas number was between 25 and 30 a night. I also was diagnosed with nasal valve collapse last year, so I wondered if that was causing them. I opened a pack of breathe right strips and used one. My AHI score was 1.4 on the machine the next morning. Clear airway and obstructive apneas were 2 or 3 and hypopneas was 10. Since that day I’ve used breathe right strips and kept the hypopneas under 10 and the obstructions 0-2. Now my AHI is between 0.7 and 2.3 each night. Does anyone else have nasal valve collapse as their cause of sleep apnea? If I don’t use the strips, I have 20-30 for hypopnea count and I feel sluggish the next day. Would a higher pressure help the hypopneas so I don’t have to use the nasal strips?

-Maggie

I've never seen my Nasal Valve, but FF masks are made to keep your air treatment in your airway. Jim

Maggie1113 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 12, 2018 8:56 pm

The doctor said some people that’s the best they can get.

poppycock.

Maggie1113 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 12, 2018 8:56 pm

between 25 and 30 a night.

the 'per night' number is pretty meaningless without saying how many hours you slept, that's why we talk about the AHI, which is the per hour average.

Maggie1113 wrote: ↑

Thu Jul 12, 2018 8:56 pm

Would a higher pressure help the hypopneas so I don’t have to use the nasal strips?

The standard remedy for too many hypopneas is "more pressure".

Thanks about pressure being the answer to too many hypopneas. I tweaked my pressure a half cm higher and my AHI was 1.2 last night. Hypopneas had a number of 4, but the obstructive apneas increased to 5 when they’re usually 0-3 on average. It did address the hypopneas though, so I’ll try this for a few nights to see if the numbers differ any.

One thing you can expect is that the results will vary from night to night even with no changes to anything.
That's why we don't go making changes every night based on last night's results.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 14, 2018 9:44 am

One thing you can expect is that the results will vary from night to night even with no changes to anything.
That's why we don't go making changes every night based on last night's results.

Got it, makes sense and thanks!