Need suggestion for CPAP machine for someone without apnea.

jonquiljo wrote:I don't think my insurance company (BS of Cal) has listened to Mr. Google.

I am VERY surprised to hear that BS of Cal would not follow Medicare guidelines. Most group insurance coverage plans adopt Medicare coverage criteria as their CPAP policy guideline... Someone please correct me if I am wrong about that.

If they hem-and-haw about CPAP coverage, I would suggest that you ask them: "Do you follow Medicare guidelines for CPAP coverage?". My understanding is that they almost always say "yes". Then you can show them Medicare guidelines in print if they seem reluctant to cover your CPAP... Good luck, jonquiljo.

Julia, Roster and Emilia (ok, i'll include everyone else too) all are spot on with their replies.

CPAP will treat the snoring.

But get definitive reasons for the snoring first from an eye, ear, throat, nose doctor.

The best recommendations come from specialists. They don't want to waste resources on guesswork. So, chances are, they'll be very honest about your therapy options.

That'll work better than just assuming a CPAP will take care of matters for you.

Cheers!

OK. Thanks for all of the posts. This is quite the helpful community and I'm glad I found you.

Here are the sleep study results. I'm not sure what is and isn't relevant, so I'm transcribing everything:

Age: 45 Sex: Male Weight: 170 Height: 70" BMI: 24.44 Epworth Sleepiness Scale: 10

Total Recording Time = 425.0 minutes Total Sleep Time = 317.5 minutes
Sleep Efficiency Index = 74.7%
Stage awake at 24.6%, stage I of 4.4%, stage II at 80.8%, stage III at 0.0%, stage IV at 0.0%, and stage REM at 14.5%.
Sleep latency at 14.0 minutes and REM latency at 185.0 minutes

1 obstructive apnea
17 hypopneas
0 central apneas
0 mixed apneas

Apnea/hypopnea index was 3.4 events per hour.
AHI during REM was 7.8 events per hour.
Longest respiratory event was 35.0 seconds.

Resting saturation was 96%, mean saturation was 95%, and low saturation was 91%.

160 snoring events noted.

EMG revealed 10 periodic leg movements. PLMD index at 1.9 per hour. PLMS did cause arousal.

ECM revealed an average sleeping heart rate of 59.3 beats per minute non-REM and 62.5 beats per minute REM. Occasional to frequent cardiac arrhythmias were observed.

Let me know what you think...
Thanks in advance.

anything about UARS?

Nothing about UARS. What you see is what I got. The report was only 2 pages.

for your reading... an old post of SWS's... has a definition of UARS

viewtopic.php?t=2327

You had no slow wave sleep (III & IV) - very unhealthy.

Does it show the number of arousals and the RDI?

rsoter: as mentioned above, what I posted is all that I have. Quite literally I transcribed almost everything except for extraneous verbiage. Obviously it wasn't the most in-depth study... What do you mean by "very unhealthy" for the lack of stage III and stage IV sleep?

Your mind and body need all 4 stages of sleep to be refreshed, to process and sort out your mental and physical events - they're definitely linked - or you will eventually get sick. Sleep deprivation is not just about feeling sleepy!

However, one thing struck me - while you certainly don't seem to have apnea, the arrythmias should be addressed by either a cardiologist, or at least your MD, because you're having them for a reason and need to find out what that is.

was it like a 1 or 2 page thing? That's just the Dr's summary if so.

If so, if you go back to the place where you got the study there should be more.

-SWS wrote:Most group insurance coverage plans adopt Medicare coverage criteria as their CPAP policy guideline...

Yes, it's individual coverage and we pay $5K a month for high deductible garbage. We got nailed by the "pre-existing" conditions problem. They lower coverage and raise premiums as you make claims - on an individual policy - it depends on the state and California is a bad one.

Yes, I can fight them and often do (you bet I do for $60,000 a year for two people under 60!). I guess we've seen the worst of these people and are lucky to still be able to afford to be covered. They deny lots of things and then I appeal. It gets tiring after a while trying to get what you pay for. The irony is that we no longer make many claims - but once you are considered "trash" by the insurance companies, they keep raising premiums until you are out. I was lucky enough to switch to lower deductible coverage two years ago. If not, we'd pay about $7,500 a month now for a 70-30 PPO plan!

California has laws to protect business policies, but leaves individual to the wolves. The only way to get onto a new plan for my wife and I would be to go without insurance for 6 months and then get in with the assigned risk pool. But 6 months of non-coverage is way too dangerous nowadays to do. So we are stuck.

cohncons wrote: Apnea/hypopnea index was 3.4 events per hour.
AHI during REM was 7.8 events per hour.
Longest respiratory event was 35.0 seconds.

Resting saturation was 96%, mean saturation was 95%, and low saturation was 91%.

160 snoring events noted.

EMG revealed 10 periodic leg movements. PLMD index at 1.9 per hour. PLMS did cause arousal.

ECM revealed an average sleeping heart rate of 59.3 beats per minute non-REM and 62.5 beats per minute REM. Occasional to frequent cardiac arrhythmias were observed.

This seems odd that no one followed up on no stage 3 or 4 sleep. It is also odd that no one was following up on the arrhythmias. Apnea or any breathing issues were minimal - even your snoring was only 160 events. Unless you had to really honk to have it called a snoring event, then something seems really missing here. I hate to ask this - but did you take a lot of meds to sleep?

What could cause someone to never cycle to stage 3 or 4 sleep? It's not like he was being woken often enough to keep him in stage 1 and 2. There were no medical conclusions made as to the interpretation of the report - like by your sleep Dr. or anyone?????