Mild Sleep Apnea (but still tired)

[brainf0g]

They aren't frequent but I find them here and there when I'm poking around. Here's an example from last night (around 01:20:34). Basically flattens out for 7 seconds.

[mesenteria]

UARS related question for the forum. When scanning through OSCAR's Flow Rate chart and you see a handful of spots where you stop breathing for 6-9 seconds, doesn't get flagged as an event, and the variable pressure remains constant, what should you do?

What we go by is frequency, clustering, and by length.  Onesees and twosees, less than 10 seconds, and not apparently in groupings or coming in succession, are probably nothing noteworthy, and may be related to restlessness, arousals, or turning over to the other side. 


This isn't 'ideal'.  One should hope to have few arousals and few intervals where the machine detects restrictions of flow.  But the fact is that we all have them, mostly, now and then.  They only become deleterious if they lead to hypopnea/desaturation and prevent the onset of the deeper stages of sleep.  Without an EEG, that's going to be hard to peg. But, an oximeter might tell us something else.

[slowriter]

Keep in mind I'm new and learning, but it looks to me like a number of those breaths show evidence of FL. You want them to be rounded, rather than jagged.

[brainf0g]

I would need to dig deeper into the data to understand more of the trends of those <10s events. Usually just onesie-twosies, but on occasion, I will see a couple in succession.

@slowriter: That "jagged" curve is pretty much perpetual for me all night every night

@mesenteria: Had oxi done twice. Once during the initial at-home study and again while I was on the originally prescribed APAP. Both instances showed sat was >93% all night long (and one of the reasons why the original sleep doctor thought my treatment was going perfectly even though I continued to feel mega-tired).

[slowriter]

@slowriter: That "jagged" curve is pretty much perpetual for me all night every night

Typical solution for that is to increase PS.

[brainf0g]

I should rephrase that. Most of the time it doesn't look too jagged. This is more or less what it looks like the majority of the time when nothing crazy is going on.

[slowriter]

Ah, that's better.

[mper6794]

Could you post all night?

[brainf0g]

Keep in mind I only have 10 nights worth of data with the AirCurve. Oct 4 was looking to be a good night's worth of sleep until I was jolted awake by an emergency phone call in the middle of the night. Oct 6 was a full night, but feeling pretty average today (which for me is a decent amount of brain fog).

[mper6794]

Hi, brainfog
No wonder why you keep on going brain foggy! Your sleep keep on going very disrupted, with tens of awakenings and low sleep efficiency.
I am afraid,  I would have to bother you again and talking about  the need for ten-minutes windows (now, also adding RR and median reference line), so that we could better understand reasons why you keep awakening that much, and see  better way to move foreward.

Meanwhile, based on what I have recently learn from a major pitfall on my therapy, I would not allow loose pressures close to Pmax; this could add more disruption/moves/leaks on  your sleep, particularly when false obstructive are flagged and the machine increase pressure. I would suggest what for me has become a rule: PMax < = (EPAPmin+PS) + 0,4; in your case: Pmax < = 9.4, one has been observing any significant obstruction.
Good luck