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Over the last month, I have been using the Sleepy Head software, and as usual for me, I have been doing a bit of experimenting. My AHI is usually below 4 using a pressure setting of 15cm H2O. I usually have the humidity set at 2/5. As the pressure is quite high, and using nasal pillows, my "snotbox" can get a little dry by morning, so I started turning the humidity up... in stages over a week or two, right up to 5/5. My AHI went up in stages to match, up to an AHI of over 9 on a humidity setting of 5. Most of the recorded events on higher humidity settings occur after 4 hours of sleep, every night. This would tie in with the higher humidity levels having time to build up. I cannot find any published research on the subject, but it looks fairly conclusive to me that there is a direct link between AHI and humidity settings. Does anyone else have any observations?

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on the "usual" humidity setting of 3, no alcohol, my AHI went down to 3.09...

I have just got back from a long weekend at our holiday chalet, and have checked my AHI for the last few days, using a humidity setting of only 3. The lowest was 2.8, and the highest was 3.8, but I had had some alcohol that night. It seems there is a fairly definite link between higher humidity and AHI...  I do hope someone can do some proper research into this for us all.

The link is well known and well documented and why we use heated hoses.

Darryl, I would have liked to have it explained better to me when I first started. I think it's not only humidity but also temperature that effects the AHI's, mine are alot higher in summer than in winter. What I now do with my humidifer settings in have them higher in winter and lower in summer.In Australia, I think we have different temperature settings on our machines but in winter I have the humidity temp setting at 27c and in summer 21c, so basically I am using it as a cooler in summer and a heater in winter, see how you go.

Are you using a chinstrap? It is most likely that you had an oral leak. This can be an issue if the humidity is too high or low.

I don't use a chin strap, and I never have oral leaks m8.. and not humidity is at 2, my AHI is less than 4 all the time.... if I raise humidity AHI goes up as high as 10

Exactly, most likely its an oral leak because the humidity is not right for you.  Oral leaks will cause events and a rise in AHI. It does not even take much of a lip purge to cause a change. If you are asleep you have no idea what your mouth is doing. Lack of or too much humidity will cause mouth leaks when using nasal masks. Two to 2.5 is most likely your optimum humidity at this particualr pressure. If your pressure needs change it is possible that your humidity needs will as well. Those are my observations in my patients.

 

 

That's an interesting observation Rock. Do you also notice higher AHI's when the weather's hotter, or doesn't it make much difference?

My Ahi is higher/lower with different weather. I believe that the cycles of the moon may have some affect on the matter as well. To date I have only been able to experiment with my own and a few others. In order for an experiment such as this we would need a wider group evaluated over the course of at least a year. Many different things would have to be monitored including weather, barometric pressure, cycles of the moon, sleep environment(room temp), and personal human cycles(does body temperature play a role?). A persons daily activities could even play a role in how muscle tone(muscle atonia) is affected.


 
Kath Hope said:

That's an interesting observation Rock. Do you also notice higher AHI's when the weather's hotter, or doesn't it make much difference?

Rock, chuck in what we eat and drink, when we eat, meds, stress, anxiety etc, there are so many variables.

Very true. Postitional changes would need to be considered as well.

I forgot that one.

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