HEY THIS CPAP THING IS GREAT!!!
I have had a long ordeal with this problem.  Cannot even remember about whenst it started.  I had forgotten what it felt like to wake up feeling good!  And I had a lot of time to deal with the frustrations and thoughts of what being a hose head must look like in the middle iof the night when the lights are off.  

I had a sleep study done on March the 12th.  The results were much as anticipated since my poor wife has had to sleep with ear plugs for as long as we have been together.  I'd be sleeping through the night and she'd be crying due to her lack of sleep.  I cannot tell you how sorry I am that I waited this long to get the sleep study done.  Truth is, I needed to get that 20th good year out of the Military so that I could retire before they could boot me to the curb before hand.  The sleep study results were purely amazing and revealed what we had expected.  The results are:

Sleep efficiency 74.6%
Latency to sleep onset 5.5 minutes
Stage 1 15.6%   22.5 minutes
Stage 2 84.4%   122.0 minutes
Stage 3 0.00%   0.00 minutes
Stage 4 0.00%   0.00 minutes
REM      0.00%   0.00 Minutes
AHI       104.2
RDI       105.1
Apneic events 253 in 144.5 minutes of sleep
Time in bed 193.8 minutes
Wake time after sleep onset 43.8 minutes
Stage shifts 51
Awakenings 13
Apnea+Hypopnea arousals 236 (98 events/hr.)
Respiratory Effort related Arousals (RERAs) 2
Limb movement arousals 0
Spontaneous EEG arousals 6 (2.5 events/hr.)
Total arousals 244 (in 144.5 minutes)
Central Apneas 0 (this was the best news ever)
Obstructive Apneas 24....mean duration 17.8 seconds; longest 26.7 seconds; index events/hr 10
Mixed Apneas 0
Hypopneas 227....mean duration 16.4 seconds; longest 26.8 seconds; index (events/hr.) 94.3
Apneas+Hypopneas 251.... mean duration 16.5 seconds; longest 26.8 seconds; index (events/hr) 104.2
Respiratory Effort Related Arousals (RERAs) 2... mean duration 16.2 seconds; longest 19.0 seconds; index (events/hr.) 0.8
Total 253 events... mean duration 16.5 seconds; longest 26.8 seconds; index (events/hr.) 105.1

OximetrySaO2 mean 93.9% (wake); 89.1% (non-rem); REM N/A; Time in bed 90.2%
Minimum 81.0% (wake); 76.0% (non-rem); REM 0.00%; Time in bed 73.0%
Maximum 100% (wake); 99.0% (non-rem); REM 0.00%; Time in bed 100%

Limb movements 4 in non-rem 0 in rem and 4 total sleep time (index 1.7 events/hr.)
Limb movements with arousal 0
Limb movements without arousal 4

Pulse during study ranged from 61.0 bpm to 102.0 bpm


Now that is me before the cpap was applied.  And to think I was wondering why I never felt good when I woke up.  I wasted so much time trying to sleep like that.  How could you get any with no REM sleep etc.   The CPAP was applied and changed everything.  

Time in bed (TIB) 223.6 minutes on cpap.
Total sleep time (TST) 191.5 minutes (which amazed me as it seemed so hard to fall back to sleep with that thing on my face)
Sleep efficiency 85.7%
latency to sleep onset 6.2 minutes
latency to REM 85.5 minutes
Wake time after sleep onset 25.8 minutes
Number of stage shifts 69
Number of awakenings 21

Stage 1 (drowsy) 25.0 Minutes (13.1% of TST)
Stage 2 (light sleep) 86.5 minutes (45.2% TST)
Stage 3&4 (slow wave sleep) 31.5 minutes (16.4% TST)
REM Stage (The blessed goal) 48.5 minutes (25.3% TST)

Apnea+Hypopnea Arousals 73 (22.9 events/hr)
Respiratory effort related arousals 16 (5.0 events/hr)
Spontaneous EEG arousals 9 (2.8 events/hr)
TOTAL 98 (30 events/hr)

I was started on the CPAP at 5cm H2O and slept only on my back.

CPAP 5cm Time 4.4 minutes; AHI events/hr 13.7; RDI events/hr 41.1 Min O2 89% REM 0 minutes
CPAP 6cm Time 7.4 minutes; AHI events/hr 16.2; RDI events/hr 40.5 Min O2 89% REM 0 minutes
CPAP 7cm Time 9.9 minutes; AHI events/hr 78.5; RDI events/hr 102.7 Min O2 87% REM 0 minutes
CPAP 8cm Time 15.1 minutes AHI events/hr 79.7; RDI events/hr 79.7 Min O2 85% REM 0 minutes
CPAP 9cm Time 14.8 minutes; AHI events/hr 60.7; RDI events/hr 60.7 Min O2 85% REM 0 minutes
CPAP 10cm Time 14.7 minutes; AHI events/hr 36.7; RDI events/hr 40.7 Min O2 87% REM 0 minutes
CPAP 11cm Time 33.8 minutes; AHI events/hr 21.3; RDI events/hr 28.4 Min O2 88% REM 15 minutes
CPAP 12cm Time 16.6 minutes; AHI events/hr 36.2; RDI events/hr 36.2 Min O2 84% REM 0 minutes
CPAP 13cm Time 74.8 minutes; AHI events/hr 3.2; RDI events/hr 4.8 Min O2 87% REM 33.5 minutes

No limb movements with or without arousal and pulse ranged between 52bpm to 96 bpm
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////
//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

So in a nutshell that it me.  I am 6' 230lbs.  Quit smoking Jan 3rd for good with the help of Chantix (wont suggest you try that unless you have an iron gut) and a dying mother (died March 22nd due to respiratory failure).  I have been on CPAP now for only 3 days.  It has already made huge differences in sleeping through the night.  No more up 6 to 8 times.  My wife says I am still snoring a bit but only marginally no more gasping.  I have a Resmed S8 elite with the H3i hunidifier.  Also because I am a mouth breather I have the mirage quattro full face mask (which ain't the most comfortable thing in the world and the bridge of my nose is a bit sore).  I am so far loving CPAP.  I look forward to turning it on!  Its like having my own cool breeze in my face and I love that feeling!  Not so sure I like the EPR exhaust pressure relief function because it makes a different noise on exhale as it does on inhale.  that is kind of annoying but I will get used to it.  I am at 22 hours of use in 3 days which is about 7 more than I would normally have slept in 3 days without it,  I am curious about some things though but in time I will find answers.  We will be looking to an ENT friend to evaluate for UPPP and RFA of my tongue and tonsils etc.  But that is more later than sooner.  Right now I am just overwhelmed with how much better I feel in only 3 days!  I was terrified to try it,,, mostly because I am extremely vain and Egocentric but watching your mom die can change all that.  I do wonder why they stopped at 13cm H2O since it wasn't completely free of snoring and Aps/Hypops.  But I will learn in time what all this means.  Anyhow I have to admit I am sold for now.  And I guess I will be looking and reading on here more and more in the future as things pop up.  Thanks for being here... You all take the pain out of a new diagnosis!

Bill

well from the looks of it, at 13cm you had such a low ahi/rdi
seems like that's the magic number for you
i don't get my second study for 2 weeks, so i have to wait until then
but congratulations on all your great sleep from someone who knows how terrible waking up 4/5 times a night is