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Sometimes I physically wake up and gasp for air. Is this an Apnea sign? - Printable Version

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Sometimes I physically wake up and gasp for air. Is this an Apnea sign? - Max Maker - 01-30-2021

I had terrible fatigue during the day for about 5 years now. I went to a lot of doctors without ever finding anything wrong. I also spend one night in a sleep lab without any findings. I am not sure if those 6h can lead to a conclusive answer. 
However I recently noticed that sometimes I wake up and gasp for air. Its quite a startling event. I recently started to notice these events and even remember them. Three months ago I bought an Apple Watch and it shows less than 91% readings about once per werk and less than 95% 4 nights per week. However the Apple Watch doesn’t measure continuously. From the data entries it looks like only once per hour. 

Can you get any inside out of this information?


RE: Sometimes I physically wake up and gasp for air. Is this an Apnea sign? - Dormeo - 01-30-2021

Waking up gasping for air is certainly a sign of possible sleep apnea. It sounds as though you're wondering whether you oxygen levels can determine whether you have apnea or not. Unfortunately, they can't, because people can have apnea without showing a lot of O2 desaturations. On the other hand, if you had prolonged and serious desats (below 90%), that would certainly point toward apnea.

But I'm confused. Your profile suggests you are already using a CPAP machine. Do you have one, and do you use it?


RE: Sometimes I physically wake up and gasp for air. Is this an Apnea sign? - Max Maker - 01-30-2021

You are right to be confused. I bought a machine to test it without getting an official diagnose. However I am completley honest here, after two nights I had enough and since then lacked the motivation to try it again. I tried it with my significant other being on vacation as to not disturb her, but with COVID she hasn´t left the house in months.  Pretty stupid. I will try it again soon.


RE: Sometimes I physically wake up and gasp for air. Is this an Apnea sign? - Dormeo - 01-30-2021

Do try it again! The Oscar data it will generate could be very useful to the experts here, and of course it'll be good to know whether you continue to have those gasping episodes while using the machine.

What were the big barriers for using it the first time around?