Have not found relief with either bipap or oral appliance treatment

Hi, I have done numerous sleep studies, 6-7. I first started off with cpap treatment and struggled like craZy, took me forever to convince doctors something was wrong, I had a hard time breathing out. Then they sent me for another sleep study and said I needed a bipap machine. I was able to tolerate the machine but I always felt even more tired when using it. Explained this many times to doctors. These doctors in Iowa I think have no clue how to treat this and can’t explain why I feel worse when using it. I have about given up. The latest sleep study says my ahi is at 6 so I decided to try a oral appliance the dreamtap. I got this about a month ago and it’s comfortable for me to wear but I still find no relief. My bottom tray keeps popping out of my lower jaw but I still find no relief wherever I have it set. Does anyone know why none of this stuff has worked for me and why I continue to feel like I never slept well. I would like help with figuring this oral appliance out too. Thanks for any help

The best source of answers to your questions is the data from your sleep studies. See if you can get a hold of it yourself. It can tell you what is going on while you're sleeping and if your treatment is working.

An AHI of 6 is on the borderline of not requiring any treatment. What is the breakdown of events that compose the AHI?

I am in the same boat. Sleep study showed I have "Mild" sleep apnea, around AHI 7 but around 17 other minor events happening an hour. My oxygen drops during events to 85% or lower sometimes temporarily. No REM sleep at all. Had an AFIB incident with my heart one night, since the obstructions caused me to stop breathing. I would wake up in night sweats, have heart palpitations and racing heart of 100+bpm. Had multiple sleep studies. My first sleep doctor was dumb, and said to just keep using CPAP, that it would get better. It did not. I had the AFIB incident after I started CPAP. So I FIRED that sleep doctor and found another. Then after complaining about poor sleep and tried during the day, the second doctor tried BIPAP on me. This helped for the most part. But I still got obstructions. So I got a ResMed Narval CC dental appliance through my dentist, to move my jaw forward. This helped a little more, but I still have nights with clusters of obstructions happening. So I'm now going to several ENT doctors, to get info on different procedures to clear up my nasal cavity, fix a deviated septum, and maybe get surgery to cut away tissue.

Whatever you do, don't let the doctor tell you that an AHI of 5-10 is "mild" or "normal" in people. The whole sleep industry is a joke, and they need to do away with the AHI range. No normal person should have any blockages of any kind, when they sleep! On nights when I have AHI of 5, I still feel bad the next day. It's only if I get the number down to < 2, that I feel better the next day. If you have any ENT's in the area, I would recommend to go see them, to see what they can offer for sleep apnea. I suffered for too long with this issue, and it has affected my heart, and now I'm on heart medicine for AFIB. I'm going to a new ENT doctor this week, that has some new non-invasive procedures to open airways.