I need some advise.
I have suffered from mild apnea and snoring like forever. Eight years ago I was referred to the local sleep clinic (this is in socialistic Sweden, so there is public health care, but ONLY public health care - or not quite, but that's not the point here )
I had multiple sleep studies/apnea screenings performed. On my first, I had a max AHI of somewhere in the teens, but the Oxymetry sensor failed. On the re-run, I apparently had sub-5 AHI.
The clinic in question has a quite conservative approach to treatment - no treatment for Quality of life improvement, only for severe OxSat reductions. Long story short - a repeated sleep study a few years ago qualified me for therapy with a mouthpiece/bite thingy. Better than nothing, but certainly not perfect. Last fall I started to complain to the dental clinic that my jaw joints were aching, so they referred me back to the sleep clinic for xPAP treatment. Two months later (public health care, remember?) I receive a notification of an appointment.
At the clinic, the nice lady told me I was scheduled for a new sleep study (a screening test to be done at home). After discussing my case for a bit, she agreed to set me up with an APAP machine, and do the screening later on.
The APAP therapy is a bliss - finally reaching stage 4 sleep
So, now a few weeks into the therapy I have to do the screening again, and my fear is that it will show an AHI of 3-4 or something and they will take my beloved machine back.
So, plainly put, can I have some advise on how to make sure I have a screening test showing that I need the therapy?
Some ideas so far, and what I think of them:
- moderate exercise not too late on the day before - probably a good idea
- a glass of wine before bedtime - well, it will relax my muscles, but it may also disturb sleep, so probably not a good idea.
- sleeping on my back - well, that'll do, but since they will record AHI in supine position separately, they will simply tell me not to sleep on my back.
What to do, what to do?