Do I really need a CPAP?

[Maritime20]

After an at-home sleep study the doc said I have mild apnea -- just over 5.2 -- and prescribed a Resmed. I've been using it for around a month. I just uploaded some data into OSCAR and it really doesn't look like I'm having many issues and am wondering if I really need it. Can you help me interpret? 

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[mesenteria]

One way to find out is to lower your upper pressure limit to about 8 or 9 and do a trial for three or four nights to see if your AHI or other indicators rise.  Right now you are set at a max of 15 cm, but your pressure chart doesn't suggest you ever came close to needing it.  The lower limit is about right for most starting out, but cutting the range quite a bit may show some underlying issues.  Just a suggestion.

BTW, that night's result is quite spectacular.  Congratulations.  But, I won't say, or agree that, you don't need PAP therapy.

[Sleeprider]

The Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset has resolved your apnea nearly completely with very low pressure. That does not mean you will not have your baseline AHI of about 6 events per hour if you stop CPAP. This is what treated sleep disordered breathing looks like. I will assume your sleep study showed mainly hypopnea. While those events are a reduction in respiratory flow with a drop in your oxygen saturation, it does add up. You had a very mild case of apnea, and if you choose not to use therapy now, I suspect your will eventually feel a stronger need for it. The lack of events while using CPAP reflects the efficacy of therapy, not that you're cured.

[70sSanO]

I can only assume you did a sleep study for a reason. Hopefully CPAP is resolving whatever issues you had and you are getting good sleep.

But a 5.2 AHI indicates that you stop breathing or have a significantly restricted airway 40 times over 8 hours of sleep. With CPAP you are having 1 event over those 8 hours. This doesn’t even account for the number of times you stir during sleep because the flow of air is restricted some.

Your numbers are really good. If you feel good and your reason to stop is because it is a hassle to clean stuff, it probably isn’t worth stoping. Few people improve without CPAP and many get worse as they age, even with CPAP. The longer you put it off the tougher it becomes.

John

[SarcasticDave94]

The results you see on OSCAR is the treatment after CPAP machine therapy has worked to reduce apnea events. You will have more events without CPAP. As a reminder, CPAP therapy doesn't cure anyone with a bit of use and then you can put it on the shelf.

Your untreated AHI may be low currently, but mostly without fail it'll get worse eventually.

[Maritime20]

Thanks everyone. I'll keep at it.

[Geer1]

With mild sleep apnea the recommendation is to treat it if the patient is symptomatic. I imagine you were hence why you had the sleep study done.

It takes a while to get used to the machine and to notice all of its benefits and with mild cases I believe it can take longer as the benefits aren't as obvious.

Only you can answer the question as to whether CPAP is beneficial. Oscar data tells you if the treatment is successful, it doesnt tell you if it is beneficial.

[Maritime20]

Great insights from everyone. Thanks for being such a good resource.

[SarcasticDave94]

Glad we can help. Stay with it, and if you have any questions, feel free to ask. We do have off topic discussions as well if you want to talk other things than CPAP. Stick around long enough and you may earn a free AB coffee coupon to assist in the best sleep never.

[farnsy]

If your apnea is mild and you don't care for the hassle of the CPAP, you are likely a good candidate for a lesser solution. They have oral devices that advance your lower jaw and little silicone things that suck your tongue out of your mouth (the latter are extremely cheap and easy to use but look like a pacifier, so people shy away from them for aesthetic reasons). These have both been shown to work well for some patients with mild apnea. It may be that you don't need the big guns.

My apnea is also mild, but the super clean, warm, humidified air from the CPAP dramatically helps my sinus situation, which used to disturb my sleep as much as apnea did. They were happy not to give me a CPAP based only on my first study results, but since I was super tired they wrote me a prescription anyway. I sleep better with CPAP, so I'm not going back.