Sleep Apnea Support/Questions Thread

[BigCat]

Originally Posted by pnoon

The apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) is an index of severity that combines apneas and hypopneas. Combining them both gives an overall severity of sleep apnea including sleep disruptions and desaturations (a low level of oxygen in the blood). The apnea-hypopnea index, like the apnea index and hypopnea index, is calculated by dividing the number of apneas and hypopneas by the number of hours of sleep.

Essentially, it is the number of "events" per hour.

Anything 5 or less is considered "normal", so at 1.2 you are doing great! If you up the pressure a little bit on the cpap you may be able to get it under 1. My DME left the instruction card for changing the settings on the machine with me when he dropped it off. I'm not sure he was supposed to, but I used it to adjust mine up .5 and saw the AHI drop. I'm not sure that is making any significant difference, but I figure it can't hurt. My doc was impressed when I told him last year.