#'s Don't Mean A Thing!!!!!

Before you chew me out, YES, I know our numbers play an important part in our therapy.

HOWEVER.....................

Last night, my #'s were the highest I have recorded since I started therapy. Highest leak, highest AI, highest HI. Last night was also........... the longest sleep I've had since I can't rember when!!! When I checked the "usage" I had to do a double take! 10:25!!!! I honestly can't remember the last time I've slept that long! I feel GREAT this morning!!!!!

If "good" numbers only let me sleep 6-7 hours, and "lousy" numbers let me sleep 10 hours, give me the "lousy" numbers every time!!!

So what were your bad numbers? Mine were the worst ever. I knew the numbers were bad before I even looked at the machine, just by how my head and eyes felt. AHI = 18.9, AI = 5.7..... That'll teach me to complain when I have an AHI of 7.0!

And on the reverse, good numbers don't necessarily mean a good night's sleep! My AHI is ALWAYS under 2, most of the time under 1. My snores are usually low. My leak/vent rate is near the vent rate for my mask. I still don't feel rested when I wake up. And I'm still tired and/or sleepy during the day. (I've also had overnight pulse/ox thingys done, and those numbers have been "good" as well!) When I do manage to sleep for a decent amount of time before waking up, I never sleep more than four or five hours before waking up. Then the rest of the time is spent sleeping/waking/sleeping/waking.

But, I don't wake up with headaches or a racing heart, and even though I don't feel great, I feel better than I did.

Pam

My take is that one night's numbers rarely mean much. A week's numbers mean something. Two week's numbers mean more. And so on. As I understand it, the numbers are for trending purposes over weeks of time.

If your leak was way high, then your numbers may not be accurate. Hopefully your leak wasn't that bad.

If you needed REM, and you got it, and you happen to do worse in REM, then getting the needed REM, although a good thing, can make the AHI high that night, theoretically anyway, just as one example of what can happen. And conversely, having low numbers could mean you never made into the sleep stage you do worst in--so having low numbers isn't necessarily a good thing on any given night. That's why we have to balance out our view of the numbers with how we feel.

The information our machines give us is important and significant, but it has to be viewed in the light of the other data available to us and used for trending over long stretches of time.

Data junkies should use all data, not just the numbers given by a machine on one night.

Good post, Komodo. Important point.

Komodo wrote

Last night, my #'s were the highest I have recorded since I started therapy. Highest leak, highest AI, highest HI. Last night was also........... the longest sleep I've had since I can't rember when!!! When I checked the "usage" I had to do a double take! 10:25!!!! I honestly can't remember the last time I've slept that long! I feel GREAT this morning!!!!!

I'm curious. What were your last night's numbers? And what is the comparison set of numbers (averages would be most helpful) that you are comparing to? Thanks.

Remember that if you are awake for a significant portion of the session, that can affect your numbers. When you are awake, your breathing is partially under conscious control, and is less regular than when asleep. Hold your breath for 10 seconds or more to listen for that noise you think you heard and, viola!, an apnea is born.

Try it one day. Keep your mask on after you awaken for half an hour or so while you watch TV or read or whatever. Then look at that portion of your detail graphs. You will most probably see events.

cinco777 wrote:Komodo wrote

Last night, my #'s were the highest I have recorded since I started therapy. Highest leak, highest AI, highest HI. Last night was also........... the longest sleep I've had since I can't rember when!!! When I checked the "usage" I had to do a double take! 10:25!!!! I honestly can't remember the last time I've slept that long! I feel GREAT this morning!!!!!

I'm curious. What were your last night's numbers? And what is the comparison set of numbers (averages would be most helpful) that you are comparing to? Thanks.

Monthly averages:

Leak: 0.16

AHI: 7.2

AI: 0.3

HI: 6.5

Useage: 6:03

Monday's Numbers:

Leak: 0.48

AHI: 12.1

AI: 2.3

HI: 9.8

Useage: 10:25

Last night was another good night for me, getting 8:30 sleep. My numbers were slightly higher than my monthly average, but not by much. I know that two good days don't really mean much in the overall scheme of things, but OMG is it NICE to get two FULL nights of restfull sleep in a row!


Being a relative noobie to xpap myself, I posted this thread to help other noobies to not obcess over getting the "perfect" numbers every night, the way I did. Low numbers ARE important, but consistant numbers that make YOU feel good, ARE your "good" numbers.

I'll continue to log my numbers everyday, but so long as I'm getting good sleep, I don't care what those numbers are. IMO, that's what xpap therapy is all about, to let us sleep peacefully.

Komodo,

I tend to agree with you re this. Have seen many bad numbers from a great nights sleep that seemed to fly in the face of the data.

There have though been occasions when I thought I was having great sleep, the #s said otherwise & after a few of these 'supposedly' good nights, daytime
drowsiness started coming back but sleep seemed great. The worst case of this was due to high leaks. I had assumed the machine was compensating for them but as mentioned, after 3 or so nights started to have daytime drowsiness bouts & had to then readjust mask etc: to tackle the leaks, then got back to 'normal'.

DSM