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+--- Thread: Alcohol Improving Centrals and Hypopneas? (/Thread-Alcohol-Improving-Centrals-and-Hypopneas)
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RE: Alcohol Improving Centrals and Hypopneas? - Peter_C - 01-16-2014
/Wave hands...
Food for thought here? Chasing numbers can be fun and fulfilling, but personally I am thrilled anytime I get my AHI below 10. While in a perfect world, below 5 is a goal to shoot for, it won't always happen for everyone. The big question is, do you feel better when you wake up since starting to use your dream machine or not? xPAP therapy tries to improve the quality of your sleep while keeping your O2 stats within a reasonable range. Depending on your degree of apnea, you may be chasing an unreachable goal. Does this make sense?
RE: Alcohol Improving Centrals and Hypopneas? - DocWils - 01-16-2014
Good response, Peter. I approve.
RE: Alcohol Improving Centrals and Hypopneas? - Peter_C - 01-16-2014
I am super-anal, and slightly OCD in quite a few areas. I worry that some folks are like me and they will start to stress and focus SO MUCH on the numbers and the graphs that they will lose sight of what the plan and goal is here. By all means, watching numbers has proven to me that I do better on a FFM than on a nasal mask - so, good move on my part to watch - but my numbers rarely drop below '10', but my entire world is so much better on my dream machine that I am happy with what I can get.
Control what I can - leak rates for one. But otherwise don't stress over every hiccup....
RE: Alcohol Improving Centrals and Hypopneas? - DocWils - 01-16-2014
Once you've gotten used to the mask, and sussed how your pattern is, it is best to just check it every now and again, a few weeks seems pretty good, then load it into sleepyhead (or whatever), see how you are doing in general, and look for any unusual nights or new patterns emerging. Each night will be different, no matter what, but there should be a general tendency within a decent spread of points - the problem arises not in the variance, but when the numbers start to steadily rise again, or if you are diagnoses for OSA and you start to see a lot of CAs, for instance - then you need to look at readjusting your therapy or examine other factors (food, alcohol consumption, stress, whatever).
Aiming obsessively for a 0 AHI is really not worth the effort - really no one has that who is healthy, so why should you? Once you have it in hand, take it easy and follow Peter's example.
RE: Alcohol Improving Centrals and Hypopneas? - Sauron - 01-16-2014
Thanks for all the replies.
I wasn't suggesting that it would be a good idea to have a couple of drinks before bed every night (or suggesting others try it). My sleep quality after drinking is definitely worse and I feel worse in the morning. I just thought what the numbers were suggesting was odd and wondered if anyone else had experienced it.
I'll chalk it up to coincidence.
I've only been on CPAP for a couple of months, so yes, hoping the centrals will settle on their own.
I'm not yet really feeling any better during the day yet, but I am still waking up several times during the night and adjusting the mask etc. And it takes me longer to fall asleep than it used to, but I think that is just because I am still adapting to the machine/mask. I'm hoping that once I get more used to it this will become less frequent and I will start feeling better.
RE: Alcohol Improving Centrals and Hypopneas? - Sleepster - 01-16-2014
(01-15-2014, 10:51 PM)Sauron Wrote: I know alcohol typically worsens obstructive apneas. but i wasn't sure if it had any known effect on centrals or hypopneas as i don't really understand what causes them.
Alcohol and other sedatives will have the same effect on obstructive apneas as on hypopneas. A hypopnea is a partial collapse of the airway, an obstructive apnea is a full collapse.
It's easy for me to see that doing something out of the ordinary to your body, like having a few drinks, might have an affect on your AHI. It's a temporary effect, though. I doubt that drinking every night would continue to have the same effect.
Central apneas are different beast. If you were diagnosed with pure OSA (no central apneas) then the centrals you're getting now are due to the CPAP therapy itself. This is a phenomenon that's associated with adaptation to CPAP therapy and should go away with time. I can also see how alcohol might lower these, too.
Your AHI may change a lot from night to night, especially when you're new to CPAP therapy. A common mistake is to think it's due to something, when in fact it may just be random.