Wide AHI ranges

[snoopj123]

In the past, I've asked a few questions related to being active while sleeping (I'm a side sleeper that rolls quite a bit).  Also, there's a part of me that's just wondering if some of my swinging AHI numbers are mask related.  Bear with me on this one.

I started traveling for my job recently.  I get out of the house and sleep in hotels once every couple of weeks (or more frequently).  During my trial period, I was assigned a full face mask (the F&P Simplus) and I've acclimated to it rather well, although my numbers have never been all that great.  I think my lowest AHI while using it was in the 5-6 range.  During that trial period, I was also given the Philips Dreamwear FFM to try out.  Since this one is smaller, I tend to bring that one with me on the road.  Now, here's for the interesting thing.  I get much better AHI numbers on the road.  For instance, last week, I managed a therapy session of about 4 hours, 20 minutes and had an AHI of 0.70.  Since coming home and switching back to the Simplus, I'm back to nights in the 10-15 range.

Just wondering if anyone else has noticed the potential for the mask to really be a problem from an AHI perspective.  I also noticed this on vacation a couple of weeks ago where I could hit 0-3 AHI without an issue.  My only problem is the Dreamwear FFM can be a little noisy and sealing it can be cumbersome.  Some of my largest Large Leak moments are using it.  I'm just wondering if I might need to switch to the Dreamwear full time.  I mean, the good news is that I've managed to acclimate to both, so it's not a large stretch to get used to the Dreamwear FFM full time if I must.

It's either that or the Simplus mask is causing the machine to think there's a lot happening that really isn't.  I mean, my CAs drop dramatically when using the Dreamwear.

[snoopj123]

Honestly, the best thing to probably focus on, outside of the number is if I'm feeling better with sleep, regardless of the mask. Even with a high AHI coming from the Simplus, I still feel much more refreshed than I did when I didn't attach the foreign object to my face at night. I'm just interested to see if anyone else has switched masks like that and your events just dramatically decreased to the point of making you wonder if the the machine and mask just don't work well together or report a lot of false positives.

[ShaunBlake]

I'm confused, snoopj123, have you compared the masks at home, or always one at home, the other on the road?

I don't want to muddy the waters, but it occurred to me that the culprit might be bedding.  I've found that sometimes I had better sleep in the beds of the hotels I used than I got at home.  if you've used the Dreamwear at home and gotten lower AHI numbers, then it's time to chuck the F&P.

And to answer your first question, yes, masks can make a huge difference.  My first mask was a Resperonics ADAMS mask (an ancient nasal mask).  It is bulky and has several straps and Velcro connectors, but I got acclimated to it pretty quickly and was very fond of it.  But it wasn't nearly as effective as the ResMed pillow masks I've used.  Your DME provider may have a try-and-return policy that will facilitate finding the right mask for you.  If not, time to pick a better provider!

[snoopj123]

I used the Dreamwear at home a few times but my wife did complain about it being noisy so I acclimated to it on the road.  Barring travel schedule, I’ll let look into using the Dreamwear at home for a spell and check numbers.  I really didn’t think to actually do that due to prior spouse complaints.