(11-13-2014, 12:17 PM)PsychoMike Wrote: LV, it could be that rather than a "pure" apnea, you're more in the upper airway resistive syndrome (UARS) category like me.
In my study, I only had an AHI of 6 which would have placed me in a very mild apnea category. My RDI, on the other hand, was over 50 and considered severe. The issue is that when my airway collapsed (i.e. for an apnea event), my brain was waking up too quickly for it to score the drop in blood oxygen saturation associated with a "real" apnea event....still felt like crap in the morning from not sleeping, but not getting the AHI numbers that would traditionally explain it.
UARS is a form of obstructive sleep breathing, like apneas, but not all docs will diagnose UARS....they just lump it all into OSA and be done with it. An RDI of 18 with an AHI of 1.5, to me at least, suggests moderate UARS, which is real and just as much an issue as OSA. Sure, you don't have an 18 AHI...but for what an RDI of 18 does to your sleep, you may as well have...at its most simple level, the differences are the length of events and what's happening to your blood O2 levels.
Thanks for such a thorough explanation! What you are describing sounds exactly like what I'm going through. Now I feel better knowing more and about making the decision to purchase the CPAP.