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O2 drops while awake?
#1
O2 drops while awake?
I have been using APAP (numbers in profile are current) for almost two years, and with the help of everyone here, have gotten things dialed in so that my AHI is consistently below 2.. most days below 1.

I decided to buy an O2Ring just to compare my O2 levels with and without CPAP out of curiosity.  Without CPAP, the ring shows that I have between 10-20 drops of at least 4% each night... but that it never goes below 90% with any of those drops.  Which, I assume is telling me that even without CPAP, my apneas are not very long in duration.

The interesting thing I did find, however, is that WITH CPAP, I am seeing 3-4 drops to low 80's BEFORE I fall asleep.  Once I am asleep, it is above 98% all night, with one or two drops to mid 90's during machine treated apneas.  I have always felt like it takes me a little while to get used to the CPAP when I lie down, and that once asleep I don't even notice it.  But it was very interesting to me that my "getting used to it when in bed" correlates with O2 drops to low 80's a few times.  I felt sure that OSCAR would show clear airway events at these times of drops, since I recall feeling like I nodded off, and waking up realizing I had not been breathing for a few seconds... but OSCAR actually shows obstructive events, and the pressure ramp up, and then the other obstructive events.  The durations of these "nodding off" events are around 38-40 seconds.  Any events after I am sleep never last more than 10-15 seconds and never have O2 drop below 90.  It seems that CPAP is causing me to have these larger drops, and only as I am falling asleep.

Has anyone ever seen this before?  I have never used the ramp feature.  I do have exhale relief at the lowest setting.  Any ideas for what to change to keep this from happening would be appreciated!
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#2
RE: O2 drops while awake?
First, the O2 ring looks like a nice, comfortable lightweight device that records SpO2 and pulse data. I hope we can eventually see the raw data and perhaps incorporate it into OSCAR.

Sleep onset desaturation is not uncommon and may be the respiratory system handing off to the autonomic respiration pacing we use when asleep. Many members have some central events at sleep onset that we call sleep wake junk. I can't explain why you would have more of this using CPAP than without, however I suspect the benefits of CPAP through the night more than make up for the brief desat at sleep onset.
Sleeprider
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INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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#3
RE: O2 drops while awake?
This has been a nightly occurrence... before I had the O2Ring I thought the events when falling asleep were while awake and breathing heavier getting adjusted to CPAP each night... now I see from the O2Ring that I always have one or two events where my O2 drops into the 80's when falling asleep... many nights, like last night, that is the ONLY event all night... so my AHI is near 0, but I have that one or two events while nodding off.

I have the pressure adjusted to a very good level that keeps my overall AHI very low... just wish there was a way to keep that falling asleep O2 drop from happening... I have never used the ramp feature... I wonder if that would help or hurt. Is there any info on what the sleep/wake junk is caused by?
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#4
RE: O2 drops while awake?
In my opinion Ramp would skew your therapy away from the good results you're getting now. Ramp delays the effective therapy until it times out. SWJ and why? No I do not have a scientific answer. But I understand that the transition from waking to sleeping requires things such as breathing to change in sometimes drastic looking fashion. While awake, we mostly "control", or maybe more accurate is modify, breathing aspects, yet if looked at would be even more random than the more even patterns viewed while sleeping. I myself tend to hold my breath while putting effort into standing, while repositioning in bed (awake), thinking at times, etc.

Awake breathing patterns if looked at for 24 hrs probably would not look identical from day to day. I think that the opposite could be said for a 24 hr look at sleep breathing patterns.
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEBSITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
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