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+--- Thread: Weight Loss and Side Sleeping Therapy - AHI < 0.5 (/Thread-Weight-Loss-and-Side-Sleeping-Therapy-AHI-0-5)
Weight Loss and Side Sleeping Therapy - AHI < 0.5 - AquaMan - 09-16-2023
Since starting on my APAP machine I have begun side sleeping therapy and weight loss to mitigate my sleep apnea.
Prior to being prescribed the machine I was diagnosed with AHI of 37 in the lab sleeping on my back.
Currently I have an AHI of less than 0.5 and an average OA of 0.2 with pressure set to minimums (4 and 4)
How can I tell if I need the machine any longer? I want to test how I do on my side... are there unbiased home tests?
I heard it once stated it was "rare" to no longer need CPAP, but I ask, how "probable" is it that someone with this level of OA at only 4cm, namely 0.2 OA and 0.38 AHI, becomes clinical (more than 5 OA index) at 0 cm?
RE: Weight Loss and Side Sleeping Therapy - AHI < 0.5 - cdplatt - 09-16-2023
I can't speak to unbiased sleep tests. However, there is a very strong correlation between OA/Hypopnea events and O2 desaturation events. You might try monitoring your O2 saturation while sleeping with something like the Viatom/Wellue products or even a smart watch that tracks O2 while sleeping. A smart watch won't provide the same level of detail as a dedicated oximeter, but it can give you a good idea if you are having high variations in O2 while sleeping. If you wear a Viatom/Wellue product while sleeping, you can import the data into Oscar. I do that on occasion as I try different methods to reduce my apnea events and see if I can sleep without CPAP - sleeping on my side, nasal dilators or various kinds, etc. I find those things help, but after reviewing O2 data, I always return to CPAP. When I wear just the O2 ring and stay off the CPAP, the O2 desaturations scored by OSCAR are always close to my original sleep test AHI score or higher. I occasionally have a good night, but over time, the desaturation events continue to indicate at least mild apnea.
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RE: Weight Loss and Side Sleeping Therapy - AHI < 0.5 - AquaMan - 09-17-2023
Thank you very much @cdplatt! That is a very good idea!
RE: Weight Loss and Side Sleeping Therapy - AHI < 0.5 - Sleeprider - 09-17-2023
A glance at your current results shows that although your apnea and event index is well managed, you have a lot of flow limitation and low respiratory volumes that would likely be greatly improved with higher pressure an the use of EPR. Your flow chart shows a lot of spikes that are likely respiratory effort related arousals. I would suggest increasing your pressure to 6 with EPR 2 or 7 with EPR 3 would feel a lot better and still control events. We have members from time to time that run the CPAP at these very low pressures to determine if they still need the machine. A sleep test without the therapy pressure is really the only way to know. Meanwhile, you are sacrificing comfort for a question you cannot answer while still using CPAP. The use of a recording oximeter using a control set of data with therapy and comparing to SpO2 without therapy might be useful, however I still would suggest not handicapping your therapy with these artificially low pressures. If you were using the Autoset mode, your pressure would rise a lot to resolve those flow limits. Providing a zoomed image of your chart (3-4 minutes) would likely show us the impact of these low pressures on your inspiratory flow rate.