04-17-2017, 10:38 AM
RE: Does AHI need to be below 5.0?
Tony,
There may another reason for higher reported AHI and still feeling fine. I have come to resent sleepyhead's one-size-fits-all comments that accompany AHI scores above 5. I often get scores between 5 and 10 and occasionally higher. Carefully scanning the graphs reveals that my AHI is always well below 5 (often below 1) for the first four hours of sleep but towards morning I start to see clustered (mostly central) apneas which I have come to associate with sleep / wake junk. To score an AHI in the range of 5-10 (for the whole night) means the actual AHI for the early morning hours must be above 10. At my last overnight sleep test the doctor reported no apnea events during limited sleep periods but I had extended periods of wakefulness. I know that I have a larger than average lung capacity and during periods of wakefulness my respiration rate drops low enough that I can see (on sleepyhead) the time between breaths exceed 10 seconds, resulting in a central apnea being scored. The sleep Doctor also told me that oxygen saturation level were in the normal range during these periods.
I don't want you to take this message as a reason to ignore high AHI numbers. You should try to use advice provided this forum to improve your results as much as possible but in some cases the machine generated AHI's may remain high, but still be acceptable.
There may another reason for higher reported AHI and still feeling fine. I have come to resent sleepyhead's one-size-fits-all comments that accompany AHI scores above 5. I often get scores between 5 and 10 and occasionally higher. Carefully scanning the graphs reveals that my AHI is always well below 5 (often below 1) for the first four hours of sleep but towards morning I start to see clustered (mostly central) apneas which I have come to associate with sleep / wake junk. To score an AHI in the range of 5-10 (for the whole night) means the actual AHI for the early morning hours must be above 10. At my last overnight sleep test the doctor reported no apnea events during limited sleep periods but I had extended periods of wakefulness. I know that I have a larger than average lung capacity and during periods of wakefulness my respiration rate drops low enough that I can see (on sleepyhead) the time between breaths exceed 10 seconds, resulting in a central apnea being scored. The sleep Doctor also told me that oxygen saturation level were in the normal range during these periods.
I don't want you to take this message as a reason to ignore high AHI numbers. You should try to use advice provided this forum to improve your results as much as possible but in some cases the machine generated AHI's may remain high, but still be acceptable.
