RE: Anybody had a sleep test while using CPAP?
Have you evaluated your sleep for flow limitation? Do you use, or have you tried the EPR function on your machine? Flow limitation can have similar disruption to sleep quality as apnea and hypopnea, so that a night with very good AHI, but arousals from flow limitation, results in poor quality sleep.
RE: Anybody had a sleep test while using CPAP?
(03-12-2019, 09:18 PM)Sleeprider Wrote: Have you evaluated your sleep for flow limitation? Do you use, or have you tried the EPR function on your machine? Flow limitation can have similar disruption to sleep quality as apnea and hypopnea, so that a night with very good AHI, but arousals from flow limitation, results in poor quality sleep.
No, I haven't looked at flow limitation. That is included in SH reports, isn't it? If so, I can't recall seeing anything peculiar.
Yes, I always use EPR.
One thing that I'm a little concerned about, though it doesn't explain the fatigue I've been suffering for years, is that I have been experiencing 'major' centrals more frequently for about the past year or so. These are bad enough to wake me completely and I find myself in a state of breathless panic, heart booming. Interestingly, my brain seems to try to make sense of my suffocation by creating nightmares that include drowning, being chased or fighting.
RE: Anybody had a sleep test while using CPAP?
You have a sleep "test" every night, and your Sleepyhead software stores the results. The biggest missing piece of information is an EEG which would reveal sleep stage. So far, you have kept that information to yourself, and unless you choose to share it and ask for some interpretation, we can only speculate on the causes of your contnued fatigue. In my experience, sleep clinics exist to perform a very simple, routine test for sleep apnea, and to qualify patients for CPAP and verify efficacy. They are also used to document hypoxia, RLS and some other insured medical conditions. They are not researchers or trouble-shooters, even though their sensors and perhaps their experience might allow that. So in my opinion there is not a sleep clinic test that can help you.
03-13-2019, 05:56 PM
(This post was last modified: 03-13-2019, 05:57 PM by StevesSp.)
RE: Anybody had a sleep test while using CPAP?
I should clarify my experience with 'sleep clinics'.
The 'clinic' my GP sent me to was in fact a Resmed distributor. The staff, AFAIK, were NOT doctors but more akin to salespeople. That's why my sceptical head believes few people undergoing a 'sleep test' at such a place will be told they don't have apnea.
I know that real sleep clinics exist, presumably within or attached to hospitals, with specialists who study, diagnose and treat all types of sleep disorder. My understanding is that these 'real' clinics look at sleep quality and the different stages of sleep in ways that my 'clinic' did not. In fact, the only feedback I got was confirmation that I had apnea and my untreated AHI was 38, "Now, which machine can we sell you?"
I have no problem at all with sharing my data. I haven't done so before simply because, having read and tried to understand how you folks interpret the reports, my data didn't seem remarkable. I expect I'll have to use my S9 for a week or so, while the Sleepcube is being looked at, so I will figure out how to post some graphs soon, thanks.