Elevated AHI reading while trying to fall asleep

JohnG12 · Post by **JohnG12** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 11:04 am

Can anyone please help me?

I'm currently using a Phillips Dreamstation 2 CPAP device. My average pressure at night is around 16. When I first fall asleep, assuming I go into a deep sleep, and wake up after 4 or 5 hours, my AHI reading is about 5. If I lie there for 40 minutes trying to fall back asleep and can't and decide to get up, all of a sudden my AHI reading is now 12. How can that possibly be? I'm just lying there trying to fall asleep for 40 minutes. In order for the AHI to jump from 6 to 12 in 40 minutes, my breathing would have to be insanely off in those 40 minutes. Especially considering I'm not even sleeping. I believe there might be something wrong with the machine but the VA says it's working properly. But how can that be? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

JohnG

zonker · Post by **zonker** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 11:23 am

JohnG12 wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 21, 2024 11:04 am
Can anyone please help me?

I'm currently using a Phillips Dreamstation 2 CPAP device. My average pressure at night is around 16. When I first fall asleep, assuming I go into a deep sleep, and wake up after 4 or 5 hours, my AHI reading is about 5. If I lie there for 40 minutes trying to fall back asleep and can't and decide to get up, all of a sudden my AHI reading is now 12. How can that possibly be? I'm just lying there trying to fall asleep for 40 minutes. In order for the AHI to jump from 6 to 12 in 40 minutes, my breathing would have to be insanely off in those 40 minutes. Especially considering I'm not even sleeping. I believe there might be something wrong with the machine but the VA says it's working properly. But how can that be? Any advice would be greatly appreciated.

JohnG

welcome to the zoo!

while Santa can tell whether you've been bad or good, the machine doesn't know if you're awake or asleep. it just measures your breathing. and a lot is going on while you try to get back to sleep.

if you are like many of us, this will go away once your brain gets used to the idea of CPAP. then it'll stop keeping you awake and let you sleep the whole night through.

good luck!

Miss Emerita · Post by **Miss Emerita** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 11:30 am

What Zonker said. Asleep breathing is much more regular than awake breathing. We often pause our breathing when we're awake; any pause of 10 seconds or more will be identified by the machine as a central apnea.

zonker · Post by **zonker** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 11:33 am

Miss Emerita wrote: ↑
Thu Mar 21, 2024 11:30 am
What Zonker said.

Pugsy · Post by **Pugsy** » Thu Mar 21, 2024 11:38 am

It's not just awake central apneas that can get flagged....it can also be OAs and hyponeas.

Asleep breathing is circled in red on the 2 images below....the rest of the irregular stuff along with the flagged events means I wasn't asleep.

If we aren't asleep those flagged events don't count for anything except we weren't asleep.

Same time frame as above image but just zoomed out a little farther so we can see just how extensive the not asleep time really is

Elevated AHI reading while trying to fall asleep

Elevated AHI reading while trying to fall asleep

Re: Elevated AHI reading while trying to fall asleep

Re: Elevated AHI reading while trying to fall asleep

Re: Elevated AHI reading while trying to fall asleep

Re: Elevated AHI reading while trying to fall asleep