[Treatment] Is a low AHI good enough?

[robsmuir]

As a long-time CPAP user, I've long since stopped worrying about mask fit, breathing issues, etc.

With the new Dreamstation 2, I notice that I have a more granular moderation of my sleep therapy performance and I seem to usually get an overall AHI of somewhere between 0.5 and 2.0 every night. It's consistently somewhere around 1.2. I suspect that variations between nights are largely the result of sleep postures.

Should I try harder to reduce those numbers? It seems that my APAP adjusts to keep it down quite low, and I doubt that any further adjustments of the settings are of little consequence. 

Is an AHI of zero a realistic or even possible goal?

[OpalRose]

Is an AHI of zero a realistic or even possible goal?

Although it's nice to see that zero AHI now and then, it's not a realistic goal.

Your numbers are excellent and it sounds like you have that dialed in very well.

If you'd like someone to take a look, post an OSCAR chart here for review. But as long as you're sleeping and feeling well, I'd leave things as they are.

[ppca]

As a long-time CPAP user, I've long since stopped worrying about mask fit, breathing issues, etc.

With the new Dreamstation 2, I notice that I have a more granular moderation of my sleep therapy performance and I seem to usually get an overall AHI of somewhere between 0.5 and 2.0 every night. It's consistently somewhere around 1.2. I suspect that variations between nights are largely the result of sleep postures.

Should I try harder to reduce those numbers? It seems that my APAP adjusts to keep it down quite low, and I doubt that any further adjustments of the settings are of little consequence. 

Is an AHI of zero a realistic or even possible goal?

Your numbers are very good, and as OpalRose said, as long as you are feeling great, it's all good.

However, as many here already know, having low AHI numbers is not everyting. I've been a CPAP user for years, and my AHI very rarely went above 2, and was mostly below 1, or anywhere between 1 and 2. However, I always felt very tired throughout the day. My flow limitations were not the worst you can imagine, but always around 0.35-0.40, and that appears to have been the main problem. Having a CPAP machine, which only allowed me maximum EPR of 3, probably helped to a certain extent, but obviously not enough.

After years of struggling, I finally decided to take a plunge and purchased a ResMed AirCurve 10 VAuto, which gives me much more flexibility to fight these flow limitations. I've only used it for 3 or 4 days so far, but the results are very promising.

Again, none of this may mean anything to you, if your AHI numbers are great, and you are feeling good, but the only point I'm trying to make here is that it's not all in AHI numbers...something that took me a long time to understand.


Cheers!