Getting awesome AHI with much lower pressure than Rx

[robot_head]

Hey CPAP talk...

A year ago I was having a lot of trouble tolerating CPAP. I had a number of sleep studies, all which set my Rx at 13 cmH20 (or higher, up to 13-17 bipap). I eventually went dial-a-wingin and found that when I lower my therapy pressure to 5-6.2 (autoset) I get awesome sleep and low AHI. Wondering if anyone else has had this experience, and wondering if the machine is truly measuring my AHI.

Bed partner reports zero snoring, so I'm inclined to believe the AHI. She knows immediately if I have forgotten to put mask on usually (snore like crazy).



Think this is cool?

[robot_head]

BTW, if I increase my top pressure past 7 I wake up with horrible nightmares almost 100% of the time, and feel like crap the next day

[Nyre]

Welcome to the board. A lot of experience and information can be gathered here. It's great that your taking steps to improve your therapy If it is working for you that's great. I learned it is best to make small changes one at a time for a week before making other changes. You may want to look into downloading sleepyhead software as it will give you a more detailed report

[robysue]

I was slightly over titrated during my first titration study, but it was only by about 1-2 cm.

Your experience is not common, but it's not unheard of.

I would recommend getting a copy of your diagnostic sleep study and your titration studies, with the summary graphs, if at all possible. Request the reports from your doc. Each report will typically run between 3 and 10 pages long. That's the only way you will be able to determine why the titration studies are consistently setting your Rx for a level that is so much higher than what you seem to need in practice.