Hypopnea events while awake

[ppca]

With my overall AHI numbers generally in the range of 1, I do not see too many events. Just a few hypopnea and/or clear airway events during the night. What is confusing to me is the fact that a lot of these, especially hypopnea events, occur during the time while I am still fully awake. I'm pretty sure I don't stop breathing for 10 seconds or longer. What is causing these?

[xxyzx]

With my overall AHI numbers generally in the range of 1, I do not see too many events. Just a few hypopnea and/or clear airway events during the night. What is confusing to me is the fact that a lot of these, especially hypopnea events, occur during the time while I am still fully awake. I'm pretty sure I don't stop breathing for 10 seconds or longer. What is causing these?

it is not really possible to know how fast we breathe
when you try to observe it then it changes

if your rate was down to 6 that would count as a hypop
that is lower than usual for sure
but if you are fit and really relaxed your body wont need a lot of oxygen
also depends on volume of air each inhale gives along with your body size and type 

or you may not really be fully awake
perhaps you are merely aware not awake

again imho rare but i have experienced that condition
i 'saw' my central apnea when i was aware of the exhale not triggering an inhale
i forced some more exhale and regular breathing kicked in again
i know about o and co2 sensors but this seemed to be triggered by insufficient movement in the chest to trigger the inhale

alternatively the machine may not be making proper readings for some reason

[zonk]

Try Ramp at slightly lower pressure than set pressure for a short period of time
The S9 don't score events during Ramp period

[ppca]

I used to have a ramp, but not anymore. 8 cm H2O is not too high and it makes me breathe easier right off the bat.

Having a short ramp wouldn't mask out these events anyway, as they appear within the first 30 minutes, or even longer. Very often I cannot fall asleep for at least 30 minutes, sometimes even longer, so I know I am fully awake, and yet I see some of these hypopnea, and sometimes clear way events.

I am not worried about these at all, as there are only a few here and there, but they seem to be the ones generating my AHI numbers, which, again, are very good (typically around 1).

I am really only trying to understand how is it possible for the machine to generate these events in the fully awake state.

[chill]

I am really only trying to understand how is it possible for the machine to generate these events in the fully awake state.

It is because the machine has no way of knowing if you are awake, partially asleep, or fully asleep.  Awake breathing, particularly if you are tossing and turning, can look exactly like events to the machine.  This is called "sleep/wake junk".  In a sleep lab they can look at your brain waves to see if you are actually asleep and discount events from other sensors if you are awake.  With CPAP machines, you have do to this yourself (e.g. know you were awake and ignore them).  In Sleepyhead, you can highlight the portion of the night when you know you were sleeping to get a more accurate AHI.

[OpalRose]

ppca,
The machine doesn't know if you are asleep or awake.  It can detect different breathing patterns though. You are more than likely experiencing what we call sleep/wake junk.  

I know if I'm laying awake for awhile, that sometimes I'm breathing fast, sometimes slow.  I've even caught myself holding by breath. This can cause the machine to flag events.
It's not important and nothing to worry about.

[ppca]

Thank you, folks!

Like I said, I'm not experiencing too many events anyway, so I'm not worried even with these "bogus" ones. Just trying to understand what's going on.

Cheers!