www.lesswrong.com/posts/c75odmMdpE4sR5bhs/towards-trying-to-feel-consistently-en...
1 correction found
I basically don't have it.
A score of 5.3 is not “basically no sleep apnea” under standard adult criteria; it falls in the mild sleep-apnea range. And not snoring does not rule sleep apnea out.
Full reasoning
Standard adult AHI/REI cutoffs do not treat 5.3 as “basically no apnea.” Authoritative medical references classify AHI < 5 as normal and AHI ≥ 5 but < 15 as mild obstructive sleep apnea. So a reported score of 5.3 is above the normal cutoff rather than equivalent to not having sleep apnea.
Harvard Medical School’s Division of Sleep Medicine also notes that when a home sleep study is used, the reported REI can underestimate the true AHI because device recording time often exceeds actual sleep time. That means a low positive home-study result is not the same thing as ruling apnea out.
The follow-up comment about not snoring does not rescue the conclusion: snoring is common in OSA, but it is not required. Johns Hopkins notes that someone may even have sleep apnea without much snoring.
So the post’s inference from a 5.3 result to “I basically don't have it” is not medically accurate.
3 sources
- Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI): What It Is & Ranges
The American Academy of Sleep Medicine uses a range to categorize the severity of apnea and hypopnea events in adults: Mild: Five to fewer than 15 events per hour ... A normal apnea-hypopnea index for adults is fewer than five apnea and hypopnea events per hour.
- Understanding the Results | Sleep Medicine
Based on the AHI, the severity of OSA is classified as follows: None/Minimal: AHI < 5 per hour; Mild: AHI ≥ 5, but < 15 per hour ... Because the recording time is frequently more than the time spent asleep, sometimes the REI is an underestimate of the AHI.
- The Dangers of Uncontrolled Sleep Apnea | Johns Hopkins Medicine
You can snore loudly and not have sleep apnea, and you may even have sleep apnea without much snoring.