Its all in the head!

[Sparticus]

After chasing stats for nearly 4 years, changing settings, equipment etc. I came to the conclusion that it was me messing up my health. I have now gone back to my original settings (Wide open apap) and hey presto Im back on track again. Now my AHI is not as good as it was but chasing a very low AHI is not the answer for me as it makes me worse. Im now getting great sleep and feeling refreshed.

My point is this, why does an ultra low AHI not always work? If it is said that the lower the better then why does it not work for all?

[Tom @ Intus]

We've been looking into this recently, especially as we had one person who had a lower AHI on one machine compared to their other one - and yet felt better with the "less effective" machine.

The reason appeared to be that the lower AHI machine was actually waking them up a few times through the night. Higher pressures to ward off the apnoeas, and therefore a lower AHI, but these pressures were causing him to wake up.

Counter-productive, clearly!

So the lesson is to do as you have done, and focus on how you feel. Yes, a low AHI is great and you should always be looking to get that as low as possible, but if the CPAP itself is interfering with your sleep then what's the point?

How you feel is by far the most important factor. After that you can chase the numbers.

[Sparticus]

Concerns over AHI Reading?

It seems that other doctors are now looking at this topic. heres a doctors report on it.

http://www.respiratoryreviews.com/sep02/rr_sep02_AHIndex.html