CharmingSalmonSeaLion

With my old gen 8 RESMED machine I had a residual AHI of 3.0. When I upgraded to the Gen 10 Airsense for Her, it decreased to a residual AHI of under 0.3 and I noticed a significant improvement in how I felt. Notwithstanding that under 5.0 is considered the goal.

Since my problem is that I desat pretty drastically, even a few apneas during the night can make me feel miserable the next day. So, don't look only at your residual AHI numbers, but also consider your O2 desat levels. To do that you will need an overnight recording oximeter, but they are available online.

Net/net, for those who DO desat badly, if may be important to get the residual AHIs down as low as possible.

Getting your OSA diagnosed and treated is still a hit or miss proposition. 80 to 90 percent of the people who suffer from it have no idea they have it.

Consider yourself one of the lucky ones. You've been diagnosed and are apparently in fairly successful treatment. I, along with many other people was diagnosed with insomnia for thirty years, when the real problem was that I obstructing 83 times an hour during REM sleep. This runs in families, so keep an eye out for undiagnosed family members.

Another important consideration is the degree to which you desaturate. Desaturation levels are a measure of the degree to which your blood O2 levels fall below normal. you want to be 90 or better, but truly normal numbers are above 95. You won't find that data in your machine reports, of course, but it should show up in your sleep study reports. Apneas and hypopneas will interrupt your sleep. But low desats can do organ damage. Beta cells in the panaceas are sensitive to low oxygen levels, as is the brain. I used to regularly defat below 60, although my AHI was only 19. trouble was during REM sleep my AHI was 83. and the apneas could last a while.

So, not to make things too complicated, you want to know your AHI during both REM and non-REM sleep, because when the two are averaged, you lose an important part of the picture.

Could you have been experiencing a momentary power outage? Just a flicker, such that the machine shut down and then immediately restarted in ramp up mode? Or possibly a voltage fluctuation? I ask, because in my area, we struggle with very unreliable power (old grid infrastructure)

If that's then problem, two possible fixes might be to eliminate the lower ramp setting, provided you can tolerate that, and/or invest in an uninterruptible power source, like those used for computer backup support.

Don’t get discouraged. It takes a while to recover from a life time of untreated sleep apnea. It took me three to four years of fully compliant PAP treatment to largely recover my cognitive function and eliminate my PVCs. But if you are using the machine every time you sleep, and minimizing your residual AHI, you should get there....but consider that you are essentially rebuilding and repairing your brain. Healing it will take time. But using the machine each and every time you sleep is the key.

When this has happened to me, it has been due to a mask leak, which drove my APAP to ramp up the pressure, With the result that I would awake, trying to exhale against what felt like a hurricane. After turning off the machine, it would revert to normal functioning. That was a RESMED gen 8. I’ve had no trouble with my Gen10.

On a few occasions, i've used my machine on a long overnight flight. If you are hooked into the plane's power, be sure to disconnect prior to the plane landing. One time I I overslept and didn't disconnect soon enough, and the power surge during the power switchover after landing fried my humidifier such that the whole unit didn't work properly. Worse, we had a devil of a time diagnosing the problem.

Many flights will no longer allow you to hook into their power due to security concerns so batteries will often be your only option. Batteries must usually be pre-approved by the airline, which, last time I did it, was a bit of an ordeal,,, Sarah