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I reached out for a sleep consult last winter due to persistent waking in the night and inability to return to sleep. In the months waiting to do my at home sleep study, this resolved. (Gave up alcohol and reduced muscle soreness from strength training). I did the sleep study anyway, due to snoring. I was surprised that it came back with AHI = 20 sleeping on my back (preferred) and 8 on my side. I routinely sleep 7-8hrs, feel no daytime sleepiness and often wake a few minutes before the alarm.
I picked up my cpap last week. My question is: Do I really have sleep apnea, and do I need this therapy? Does the fact that my auto-ramp machine goes up to 6mm mean that it "is" helping me?
11-17-2023, 11:31 AM (This post was last modified: 11-17-2023, 11:33 AM by SarcasticDave94.)
RE: Do I have sleep apnea?
Welcome to Apnea Board,
You mentioned a back sleeping AHI of 20, which is moderate apnea. Side AHI you said was 8. So if you typically back sleep, without CPAP you'll be around that tested 20 AHI. With a CPAP, according to this Oscar chart, you're now treated at 0.30 AHI. However, the word treated doesn't mean cured.
Explanation of what I mean by treated, without CPAP you'll get Apnea, with CPAP you don't.
Stats look good on that one night. Was the therapy comfortable so you can get used to it? Are you using the EPR setting, and if so at what level? If you're not using it, this can help comfort by adding it in. It does have a pressure guideline to work fully, EPR 1 needs Min pressure 5, EPR 2 needs Min pressure 6, EPR 3 needs Min pressure 7.
With your current min of 5, you can use EPR 1 at full time. FWIW any setting on your CPAP can be edited by yourself with no issue, no script changes required if you do it.
EPR equals exhale pressure relief, to help make exhalation a bit easier. It also makes your CPAP become a limited range bilevel, a more expensive machine.
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@ibjessa,
Your snapshot looks like very good treatment if your true untreated breathing was 20 ish AHI.
But before you begin questioning if you really need your cpap treatment, I'd suggest that you continue to use your equipment for another week or so.
The point is that one or two days is not going to provide a good representative of your day-after-day breathing.
So give it some time before considering the question," Do I need this or not"
