AHI is low...

So my AHI is 3 or less a day, most days it's almost down to 1. I have been getting 6 to 8 hours a night on the machine. So why am I still falling asleep and tired during the day? Is there something else I need to be doing?

The good news is you are getting effective therapy.

The bad news is that many people report weeks or months before they really feel the effects (some longer.)

Just keep at it and remind yourself that you are starting to heal and at the very least have stopped the attrition caused by OSA.

kona0197 wrote:So my AHI is 3 or less a day, most days it's almost down to 1. I have been getting 6 to 8 hours a night on the machine. So why am I still falling asleep and tired during the day? Is there something else I need to be doing?

I have the exact same problem. Low AHI six hours of sleep or more and tired during the day. I am disappointed. I have been on APAP since Dec 2013. I feel better but I expected more. How real is the expected the improvement. Are there actual studies that show how long this takes to improve?

I am going the same thing right now. Here is how I look at it. When I wasn't sleeping much at all (about 2 hrs a night) it took a couple months before I was almost out of my mind, beyond exhausted and finally going to my doctor for help. So if it took me that long to finally reach my "breaking point", I image it is going to take me just as long, if not longer for my body to recoup. This isn't even taking into account how many years I had crappy nights sleep either, just my "severe period".

I will admit I feel better when waking up, not in a fog or constantly falling back asleep but my narcolepsy hits me hard around 2. Before my cpap therapy started working (when I was still taking sleeping pills), my AHIs were still high my narco would hit within an hour or two of me waking up. I was getting frustrated and losing hope. But now off the sleeping pills my AHIs are nice and low and I have noticed improvement. Baby steps, celebrate our small victories and remember we didn't get here overnight and we are not going to get "fixed" overnight either but we are well on our way

I posted the same thing. My doctor just told me that when a sever apnea patient does not respond to therapy then they question a level of brain damage from the previous untreated sleep apnea. This damage affects the part of the brain that makes you feel refreshed and also affects appetite. He has not given me a great way to deal with it aside from drugs, which I do not like. I was hoping for some advice here as well.

My story is similar. I'm coming up on a full year of therapy and have been 100% compliant, never having missed a night. I'm averaging 6 hours "mask time" and probably 5 and 3/4 hours of that is actual sleep. That may not sound like a lot of sleep to some but it's the most I've ever gotten in my life. Before therapy I was down to maybe 2 to 2-1/2 hours a night, and fragmented into several naps at that, so I'm light years better. My AHI is averaging around 1.0., with an occasional night at 0.0 and some at 0.2. I do feel much better overall, and I'm especially more productive in the mornings. Before therapy I sometimes didn't have a very clear mind until 3-4 pm, after many cups of coffee. Yet still, if I sit down mid afternoon and attempt to watch TV or read a book, I'll nod off every time. Sane thing at the movies.

Like I said, it's been a year. Will it get any better?

What I find odd is that I can stay in bed all day and breath all that nice air. It's great. I can have a low AHI and nothing is better. I guess if you have one event and it wakes you up and you can't fall back asleep it's the same as having a lot of AHI.

IMHO the recovery seems to depend not only on the number of events, but their duration. Probably type as well. It could be that some of your remaining events are long enough to have an impact on how you feel. I am finding I feel better when the number of events is very low, and they are very short. It takes time to get there.