RE: Need help lowering AHI
I'm a bit discouraged after last night. After 2 more nights below 5 AHI all of a sudden it jumped up to 31.8 and I don't think I did anything differently other than going to bed later than usual. Sleeping on my stomach with face pointing to the left, or sleeping on my right side if the stomach position gets uncomfortable. I had trouble falling back to sleep, after waking up, and feel tired today. I'll have to agree with Sleepyhead that last night looks horrible.
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I'm going to raise the upper limit of pressure from 13 to 14 since I am now tolerating the 13 well and it looks like that might be limiting my results.
If anyone has suggestions about how to get back to sleep after waking up I'm interested (or how to sleep all night without waking up!). What works for you?
Suggestions on settings, sleeping position, whatever, to lower AHI are also welcome.
Thanks!
Tom
RE: Need help lowering AHI
Your chart for 2/23 looks like a full-blown complex apnea. Your results seem much better when pressure is lower, and I think higher pressure is counter-productive with complex apnea. From what I have seen so far, you may have complex apnea and the auto CPAP may not resolve your issues. Your AHI results are all over the place, but generally pretty high, and you are sensitive to Flex and pressure fluctuations. I suspect that your AHI may be worse with higher pressures, but there is only one way to find out.
It might be interesting to see if high pressure will "break" the apnea by setting your machine up to allow pressure to go to a maximum pressure of18. BUT if you find you are having a miserable night with that setting, then reduce the maximum pressure back down to 12, and let's have a talk about ASV and where this might need to go.
RE: Need help lowering AHI
After 2 more sleep studies and the expense of an ASV things are finally going well! I'm noticeably more rested in the morning and less sleepy in the afternoon. AHI is averaging 1.2, after 2 weeks on the new machine, and appears to be declining over time.
RE: Need help lowering AHI
That's great news! Congratulations on pushing through, and thanks for sharing the news. Best wishes for continued progress – and especially for that wonderful feeling of well-being.