Two kinds of monitoring
Diagnostic monitoring is a one-off overnight recording used to confirm whether you have sleep apnoea and how severe it is. Ongoing monitoring is what happens afterwards: tracking treatment use, residual events and how you feel, month after month. This page is about the second kind.
What is worth tracking
1. CPAP adherence
Nightly hours of use is the single strongest predictor of benefit. Recording it yourself — rather than only seeing it at a clinic appointment once a year — makes gaps obvious while you can still do something about them: a mask that leaks, a blocked nose, an unfamiliar bed on holiday.
2. Residual AHI and mask leak
Most modern CPAP machines report a residual apnoea–hypopnoea index and a leak figure. A residual AHI that creeps upward, or a persistent large leak, is a signal to contact your sleep service rather than something to self-adjust.
3. Symptoms
Track the things treatment is supposed to fix. Scoring each of these weekly makes a trend visible that memory alone will miss:
- Daytime sleepiness
- Snoring reported by a partner
- Morning headaches
- Nocturia — waking to pass urine
- General fatigue and concentration
4. Oxygen saturation (SpO₂)
Spot readings from a fingertip pulse oximeter can be a useful supplementary record, particularly if you also have COPD or another respiratory condition. Single readings vary a lot; a trend over weeks is more informative than any one number.
5. Blood pressure and weight
Sleep apnoea, blood pressure and body weight interact closely. Keeping all three in one place lets you see, for example, whether a period of good CPAP use and steadier weight lines up with steadier morning blood pressure readings.
6. Activity
Regular movement supports weight management, sleep quality and cardiovascular health. Even short daily walks are worth logging.
Building a habit that lasts
- Log at the same moment each day — most people find just after breakfast works
- Record fewer things consistently rather than everything sporadically
- Look at monthly averages, not single nights; night-to-night variation is normal
- Take a summary of the last few months to every clinic appointment
- Note context — a cold, a holiday, a new mask — so dips make sense later
What monitoring cannot do
No app, wearable or home tracker can diagnose sleep apnoea, set your CPAP pressure or tell you whether a blood pressure reading is safe. Monitoring gives you and your clinician better information; the clinical decisions stay with your sleep service and GP. If your symptoms return or worsen, contact them rather than changing treatment yourself.
How Apnea Assist fits in
Apnea Assist is an educational wellness app for people already diagnosed with sleep apnoea. It gives you one place to log CPAP hours, symptom scores, weight and BMI, blood pressure, SpO₂ and activity, and turns them into monthly trends and a wellness report you can share with your clinician. It does not diagnose, measure your breathing overnight, or replace your sleep service.
Frequently asked questions
What does sleep apnoea monitoring actually measure?
After diagnosis, monitoring usually combines machine data (CPAP hours, residual AHI, mask leak) with personal measures such as daytime sleepiness, snoring, morning headaches, oxygen saturation readings, weight and blood pressure.
How many hours of CPAP use are considered good?
Sleep services commonly use four hours or more per night on at least 70% of nights as a benchmark for adherence, but many people feel better with longer nightly use. Your own clinic's target takes priority.
Can an app or smartwatch monitor sleep apnoea?
Consumer apps and wearables can highlight patterns such as snoring or oxygen dips and help you keep a consistent record, but they cannot diagnose sleep apnoea or replace clinical monitoring. Use them alongside your sleep service, not instead of it.
Why keep a symptom diary if my CPAP machine already reports data?
Machine data shows what happened to your airway; a symptom diary shows how you actually feel. Combining the two makes it much easier for a clinician to see whether pressure, mask fit or lifestyle factors need adjusting.