It is just because having one consistent pressure every night over time can actually help the body fix centrals on its own better than when pressures move around at night on a single night, or from night-to-night. The short answer to you original question, DadisSnoring, is that if the few events you are currently experiencing on CPAP are due to obstruction then increasing the pressure should indeed get rid of them. A big part of the AHI computation involves counting the number of these events that occur per hour. . This is a common and widely held misconception. These users will continue to experience the negative effects of sleep apnea, including poor sleep, waking up gasping for air, feeling air-starved, chronic fatigue, high blood pressure, and others. I have used a Cpap machine for about 6 months and have had good success however my events seem stay below 5 for a few days and then jumps up to 8 or 9 for a day and then goes back to below 5.. I think the spike is down to the “auto” algorithms in the machine. Hopefully, some more detailed data will either confirm my theory or give me more insights. Teamwork always trumps an either/or approach. Without this "training" I am convinced that most will not really benefit from changes; best to consult their sleep doc. Sean…the exact same thing happened to me, with the same results. I have been sleeping in my recliner most nights due to shoulder pain (I can't sleep on my side in bed). I track my events, usage, seal and total score daily on Myair which is a Resmed product. The effect of CPAP is directly related to treatment compliance [1–3]. Most nights my number of events per hour is between 3 and 6. The 25% of patients who wear their CPAP all night every night are not at risk. as a substitute for advice from a health care professional who has evaluated I use nasal pillows and a chin strap due to my mouth falling open at night. Both of these readings are within normal range. I don't have data on how many are OSAs. Partial collapse is labeled a hypopnea, whereas complete collapse is labeled an apnea. My feeling is that maybe I’m just sleeping more lightly or something and am having more hypopneas rather than apneas and therefore the numbers might be elevated. Any comments? I personally would not be thrilled with my breathing stopping 5 times per hour and nor call this acceptable. . Adjusting pressures oneself with permission from one's doctor is not rocket science. Observational studies have shown a reduction in cardiovascular mortality risk in severe OSA patients treated with CPAP and adequate … Slightly pressurized air is much safer for self-titration than insulin, after all. Although the RT at your DME is not permitted to change pressures without a doctor's permission, your doctor may be very comfortable with his informed, educated patients making small changes to pressure. If you even have mild re… The information needed for being involved in one's own therapy is easily found online at helpful public forums. I knew that the pressure number was based on my sleep study and set my doctor. If your machine gives you trending data, you already have the perfect tool for optimizing therapy and evaluating the effects of small changes over time with comfort features (ramp, EPR, etc) and pressure(s). That worked but did not help my nose. I appreciate that some patients cannot learn to approach their care in this manner, but arguably anywhere from 30 to 60% of PAP users could learn this approach, and it’s just common sense that healthcare systems should be implemented to encourage patients to understand how to gather subjective data about themselves to then make informed decisions about changing the objective pressure settings on their machines." Specializes in Pediatric Urology. Also, the EPR function works very well. I am learning as I go. I’ve been on CPAP therapy now for over two months and as I’ve mentioned elsewhere, my AHI Score went from the mid-70s during my sleep study to somewhere in the five to seven range while using my CPAP machine. I believe that many patients never need to make any adjustments whatsoever to their machines. 5 to 14 sleep apnea events would be classified as mild sleep apnea and 14 to 29 events an hour is moderate sleep apnea. What a relief! Learn what your goal AHI should be to maximize the benefits of using CPAP for optimal therapy and how the pressures are determined and should be adjusted. . Treating sleep apnea is definitely not a \"one size fits all\" or \"set it and forget it\" proposition. CPAP is unquestionably the most successful treatment available for sleep apnea. I just rolled the shoulders and carried on. The test was stopped after an hour and I was put on a CPAP. The standard to describe severity of sleep apnea disorder is that 5 or under events per hour are considered normal. I'm using the RestMed Airsense 10 with a F & P Eson 2 nose mask, which is what my sleep apnea doc recommended. I finally convinced my doctor to share the SpO2 when the test was stopped. I suppose I still haven’t answered the question about why the numbers on a couple of occasions suddenly spike up? Posted by 5 years ago. Well, I have a pet theory about this. I strongly support the idea that you consult with you doctor, but it should not be hard to have a try at turning you CPAP up a little to see if this reduces your residual AHI without negatively affecting you comfort. The obstructive apneas may be helped by pressure adjustments, BUT those clear-airway apneas could be central apneas, which can be made *worse *by pressure adjustments. As opposed to obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), central sleep apnea is characterized by repetitive cessation of ventilation during sleep resulting from lack of ventilatory effort or drive to breathe. It may be easy to tell when a CPAP machine is working, but what are signs that it is not working anymore? One of the idiosyncrasies of my Icon+ machine is that it doesn’t write or update your data on the USB stick until noon each day. They are the ones who were easily titrated to a perfect pressure during the one night and who took to therapy like a duck to water. But in my experience, once I had the diagnosis and the prescription, I was able to become educated enough from fellow patients to make responsible decisions in my use of PAP to get my numbers low and the therapy comfortable enough to use at all times so that I never ever sleep without it and feel great. Consider some of the major indications that your … One, the use of Viagra, which is known to cause an elevation, and, two, my sleeping on my back due to stuffy nose. And if APAPs can be trusted to vary pressures, certainly trained patients can be trusted to do so, when that is necessary for optimal treatment. Total obstructive Apneas 16 My numbers last night were Total clear away Apneas 28 Save my name, email, and website in this browser for the next time I comment. Is there an AHI or number of apneas considered “safe” or “normal”? I was wondering if increasing the air pressure on my CPAP machine would help to reduce that number? getting up at 5am after 8-9 hrs sleep mean i have to feel sluggish? It is calculated as the number of times per hour that the airway partially or completely collapses, associated with a drop in oxygen levels. If your CPAP machine is annoying you may need to make a few simple adjustments. I did not wake up feeling tired nor did I feel tired during the course of the day. And you know what? This number can help measure how well your treatment is working. Unfortunately average use of CPAP is only 4-5 hours/night, not the recommended 7 1/2 hours a night. Dr. George Klauber answered. Events per hour variation with consistent CPAP use. Central or complex sleep apnea: A rising AHI could also be a sign that while CPAP is treating your obstructive apneas, your brain might not always be telling your body to breathe. The Apnea/Hypopnea Index (AHI) is the frequency of abnormal respiratory events per hour of sleep. This potentially could wreak havoc on the machine’s algorithms which try and make the airflow comfortable by making small adjustments rather than massive increases in titration when you start having events. How Many Apneas per Hour is Normal? Don't fool yourself: even though you use CPAP all night and feel good during the day, your body still may be suffering at night. This number means I had an average of 48 sleep interruption "events" per hour -- these events range from blood-oxygen desaturation to a complete closure of the airway. Hypopnea is a partial blockage of airflow resulting in arousal and a possible drop in oxygen level. MyApnea does not endorse the content of these If it remains at that level there may be scope for improvement. I am now sleeping and feeling more rested in the morning. I believe that events per hour is one of the criteria. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is widely regarded as the best treatment available for obstructive sleep apnea. PSG shows more than 15 scorable respiratory events (eg, apneas, hypopneas, RERAs) per hour of sleep and/or evidence of respiratory effort during all or a portion of each respiratory event. I have the humidity set to automatic (adjusts based on the room humidity). Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) reduces blood pressure in obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients, as well as in patients with resistant hypertension. . One day OSA treatment may more closely follow the model of, for example, the training received by diabetes patients who are trusted with very serious decisions in their own treatment. Then the other night, I came home from work and checked my Icon+ CPAP Machine and it showed that the previous night’s AHI was 13.1. I checked the leak numbers and my SensAwake figure and nothing seemed amiss. But neither of them is on record suggesting ever cutting out medical professionals when making medical decisions. I really think that if I had the ability to roll over in the morning and bring up my AHI numbers on the display, I’d be thinking about it all day and I think it would have some kind of impact on the way I felt that day. From the low single digits (3 – 4.5) to sometimes north of 10. . This self-care model can also work very well to further enhance the relationships between patients and their DME personnel. To be honest, I know how to change every characteristic of my machine but since my BiPap prescription is 25/21, what would I change to? After a few days when the cold or flu settles down and my numbers return to normal. The information provided on this site is not intended nor recommended -- [http://doctorstevenpark.com/dr-barry-krakows-review-of-totally-cpap-part-5]. For the second time though in the last month I’ve had a really strange anomaly – my AHI score jumped up to over 13. I believe those are the patients Park and Krakow refer to. Feeling claustrophobic. I tend to ignore home-machine-reported hypopneas, myself. The only way to get the best score in this section is continued Sleep Apnea therapy. Sleep study measures if there is sleep apnea and titration is used to dial in pressure/machine mode settings and results in the prescription. If the 5+ events an hour are well within normal ranges and/or changing the pressure would have no effect on the number of events, I wasn't even going to bother to ask him. An apnea is defined as an event when air stops flowing to the lungs for 10 seconds or longer. I believe it's better when a doc is directly involved in pressure decisions when central apneas may be in play longterm, from my point of view. I am just closing in on the 3 month mark with CPAP. The lower the number of events, the higher the score. It isn't because I think it to be dangerous for them. I have also noticed that when I am sick, since being on CPAP, I get better more quickly. If your machine increased pressure from the lower to the higher, that is because it detected one of two things. Sleep apnea treatment is one of those cases in life when \"you don't know what you don't know.\" Since you're asleep, you're completely unable to assess how well the apnea is being treated. Without knowing the numbers, I just get on with it and check when I get home from work. I have turned off the the BiPap to experiment and run at 25 and not seen any difference in AHI or air leaks, etc. When you have an apnea, air stops flowing to your lungs for 10 seconds or longer -- that is, you actually stop breathing. My AHI is usually around 0–1. I could not find a chin strap that worked for me so I ended up taping my mouth shut. Was I going to be tired that day? I honestly wish I had spoken to the mysterious doc who did my prescription but he was always too busy and couldn't even get together on the phone. I’ll probably spend an hour this week looking at the open source, SleepyHead software and see what that can tell me. My "events" display shows anywhere from 3- 8 per hour, where 8 events per hour was what I scored during my sleep study. I'm noticing large swings in events per hour, from .3 to 13.7. Since I was due for a new mask I changed to the Airfit F20 and have been loving it ever since then. 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