Hello,
Is it normal to stop breathing for up to sixty seconds at a time in the night?
This is my first entry in this forum. I have not been diagnosed with CSA, but for the last ten years, I have suspected I suffer from it. I have recently purchased a wrist pulse oximeter, in an attempt to catch one of the nightly awakenings I have been experiencing without the drive to breathe.
I have been recording information for the last 50 nights and the summary reports indicate that every night I have under 20 sleep events, which sounds healthy, though the average duration of the events each night is up to a minute long.
The information I have been finding tell me that CSA is diagnosed by the 'number' of apnea events per hour, but what if you only have a few apneas and they last up to a minute in duration?
I have yet to 'catch' being woken up while using the device. I suspect when I experience these awakenings I am not breathing for a longer period of time because when they began ten years ago, I only realized I was not breathing when my heart would spaz out. I would wake up completely relaxed and then after a couple of minutes my heart would irratically beat out of my chest, and I would snap back to reality and force myself to breath. I have only experienced being woken up a handful of times in the last ten years, so I may be monitoring myself for a long time before I record these events.
Please, does anyone know, if not breathing for up to a minute on these 'normal nights' are actually 'normal'? Or do I have something to bring to my doctor?
Thank you so much,
Elyse
Example of one night:
Total Event: 18
Time in event (min): 15.8
Average Event Duration.(sec.): 52.7
Index(1/hr): 2.1
Artifact(%): 0.1
Adjusted Index(1/hr): 2.1
SpO2 Data
Basal SpO2(%): 96.8
Time(min) <88%: 0.0
Events<88%: 0
Min. SpO2(%): 88
Ave.Low SpO2<88%: ---
Ave. Pulse: 62.3
Low Pulse: 50
