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What's your target AHI?
#11
RE: What's your target AHI?
I'll accept mine staying at or under 2.0 like it is as long as I'm not trading low AHI for good sleep. Go team ASV!

lots-o-coffee
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#12
RE: What's your target AHI?
After using a Fitbit 2 for almost 4 months now I've come to find AHI is really not the driving factor for me when assessing sleep. Each morning I rate my experience prior to looking at any numbers.....sleep duration as well as a high percentage of REM and Deep Sleep are the deciding factors. I'm lucky I sleep 8:30-9:00 a night sans the occasional all night flight three times per month. When my REM and Deep Sleep exceed 20% each I feel great.

I have been adjusting settings in an attempt to optimize these numbers and am having some success. I have found that any flex (long term settings were 9.0 fixed Aflex 1) reduces my percentage of quality sleep. By removing Aflex my REM AND Deep Sleep increased from an 19/15 average up to 25/22 average with many nights approaching 30%. I suffer from Aerophagia so I have been reducing my pressure and am now at 8.0 fixed no flex. 50% reduction in Aerophagia and some nights almost none. 

My average AHI has gone from .74 up to around 1.5 I only have 20 or so days of data vs. 120 on old settings so to soon to establish a long term trend but I believe it will be higher. I need less than 5 for DOT standards but outside of that I'm no longer convinced AHI should be a lone measure of success.

I would highly recommend a sleep tracker as this is really what caused me to look further at my results. I have aligned my Sleepyhead nights with my Fitbit nights and am amazed at how closely any arousals line up. My doctor has turned me onto a new device which when tested against polysomnography has shown almost a direct correlation. It's expensive but maybe worth the money. I have not yet made the purchase. I'll post a link if anyone is interested. The Fitbit is not all the expensive and seems to work really well.

Hope this adds some to the discussion.

GuppyDRV
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#13
RE: What's your target AHI?
This is just a random day from this week. This just shows what the Fitbit Sleep score looks like.

GuppyDRV


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#14
RE: What's your target AHI?
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#15
RE: What's your target AHI?
Walla Walla,

Since I post no links have no financial interest and stand to gain nothing.......what gives? Yes I use it......it works.......I like it! As for AHI.....who cares....I've chased it for 8 months and some nights it's low and I feel like garbage. Some nights it's higher and I feel great. Here's the point.....get ready......the mornings I feel great I can directly attribute longer REM and Deep Sleep as the only variables that help. AHI varying by 2 points has not proven to be a reliable measure. There you have it.....maybe other people might also benefit from this realization! I'm fortunate in that I've found a great sleep doctor who is helping find the right mix that yields the highest quality sleep for me. These are suggestions from him that I've been implementing along with advice from people here and on other boards.

There is a whole bunch of other things that I've been doing with his help to increase sleep quality besides just strapping a mask on my face. CPAP is only part of the equation. I hope this helps others think beyond just an AHI score. I wish I had done so sooner.

GuppyDRV
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#16
RE: What's your target AHI?
Deleted
Download SleepyHead
Organize your Sleepyhead Charts
Posting Charts
Beginner's Guide to SleepyHead
Mask Primer
5
Advisory Members serve as an "Advisory Committee" to help shape Apnea Board's rules & policies.

Membership in the Advisory Members group does not imply medical expertise or qualification for advising Sleep Apnea patients concerning their treatment.



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#17
RE: What's your target AHI?
I go by the way I feel, it's never let me down yet.
trish6hundred
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#18
RE: What's your target AHI?
(12-19-2017, 05:03 PM)GuppyDRV Wrote: This is just a random day from this week. This just shows what the Fitbit Sleep score looks like.

GuppyDRV

Hi GuppyDRV,
I find that very interesting, and thanks for sharing.

My question is this: Does the FitBit have or show a graph similar to what we see in SleepyHead?
Can you line it up with SH and compare the sleep stages in FitBit with the SH Respiratory graph?

I realize it’s probably not 100% accurate, but could prove an inexpensive way to track sleep stages.
OpalRose
Apnea Board Administrator
www.apneaboard.com

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INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE.  ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA.  INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#19
RE: What's your target AHI?
(12-19-2017, 08:01 PM)OpalRose Wrote:
(12-19-2017, 05:03 PM)GuppyDRV Wrote: This is just a random day from this week. This just shows what the Fitbit Sleep score looks like.

GuppyDRV

Hi GuppyDRV,
I find that very interesting, and thanks for sharing.

My question is this: Does the FitBit have or show a graph similar to what we see in SleepyHead?  
Can you line it up with SH and compare the sleep stages in FitBit with the SH Respiratory graph?

I realize it’s probably not 100% accurate, but could prove an inexpensive way to track sleep stages.

Yes, I upload my Sleepyhead data for the day on my home computer and then upload the Fitbit data on the Fitbit app using my IPad. Please see attachment, or else this will not make sense. The red lines on the Fitbit report corespondent with an awake period. If you use the touchscreen on the iPad to highlight an individual awakening it will tell you the time. This time can be aligned with Sleepyhead data to explore if a recorded event happened. I find that almost every Sleepyhead recorded event corisponds with the Fitbit data. The Fitbit always has additional events!

I'm guessing we naturally move during sleep and that is what Fitbit is recording. The interesting thing is that the Sleepyhead events always align with Fitbit. Additionally, I find Sleepyhead events cause longer awake periods on the Fitbit data. Fitbit uses heart rate in addition to movement. 

The posted picture shows the red awakening events. It's those lines that will show time when touched. For me th switch to lower pressure really helped Aerophagia. Turning of Aflex was when my sleep quality improved or when my REM/Deep Sleep increased. I can only speculate that the Aerophagia would wake at times which reduced my overal sleep quality. These suggestions were made by my doctor. The pressures I set were from suggestions on this forum. My doctor gives me a direction but supports my need for self exploration. He just says find what's best within a range of suggestions and when I have 30 stable days let's do a re-evaluation. 

GuppyDRV
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#20
RE: What's your target AHI?
This is the image of the Fitbit screen with the red ticks that show time of awake period.

GuppyDRV


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