Top Topics
I suspect you will find that the rest of your sleep time has been included in the previous day. I'm not absolutely sure but I suspect the machine arbitrarily uses noon to separate 1 day from the next.
When you say "power on" do you mean starting the air blowing or connecting the machine to mains electricity (turning it on at the socket)?
Do either of you know what your AHI is while using CPAP?
If she is suffering nasal congestion humidification may help. How is her humidifier set? Try turning it up by one notch and see if that helps. In not try turning it up again.
A blood test is not a way to assess your blood oxygen level. In fact, no test carried out while you're awake is suitable for assessing the possible effect of OSA on you oxygen levels. The only way to do that is to measure your oxygen level constantly for an entire night's sleep. And the only way to fully interpret overnight oximetry is in the context of a PSG so that you can see the cause for any variation in oxygen levels. Plus, oximtery is only part of a the complex picture which is understanding and diagnosing sleep.
In reference to your earlier comments about REM atonia/sleep paralysis, REM atonia is the entirely normal phenomenon of the majority of your muscles hyper-relaxing in REM sleep (presumably to stop you acting out your dreams). It happens every time you dream (roughly every 90 mins of your sleep) every night. Sleep paralysis is a disorder in which you wake from sleep and are unable to move at all for an significant period of time. Not just seconds but many minutes. I have had patients who have experienced sleep paralysis for periods of 20 minutes or more. It is quite rare though. The idea that it happens because you wake from REM sleep and your body somehow forgets to turn your muscles on again, leaving you in a similar state of atonia as in REM, is a theory only, albeit a very plausible one. Like most sleep phenomena we understand very little of the mechanism behind it.
How do you know if all of these things (blood oxygen level etc) are normal if you don't check? And what exactly is this "proven alternative"? If it works then where's the harm in having a study to prove it? I'm not sure it is wise to encourage people to abandon their treatment. That is the sort of thing that should be done with great caution, education and in consultation with a trusted medical professional.
CPAP works. And it works for the vast majority. OSA is a common condition, and in a country the size of the US there are probably tens of millions of people who suffer from it and millions of them who use CPAP. If only one percent of those millions of CPAP users has a problem with CPAP (and it's probably more than one percent) that one percent would still consist of tens of thousands of people, if not hundreds of thousands. So the fact that there are many people with stories about how they struggle with CPAP is not at all surprising. Further more it is not evidence that it doesn't work, but rather evidence that heaps of people use CPAP because heaps of people need it. CPAP is not for everyone, but it sure is the best tool we have for the large majority, especially when applied with some care and expertise.
Sleeping pills a definitely used too liberally without much understanding of, or though given to, the problems they can cause. I'm not sure what you are saying about REM sleep and "total control", though. REM atonia and and sleep paralysis are not the same thing (although they are believed to be related).
All the data from your machine measures is your breathing. Is it nice and even or does it stop and start? If you have a low AHI (less than 5) then your breathing is very likely OK. There are about a million other things which can make you tired and it is likely that one of these is also at play. Investigate with a reputable doctor.
There is much research to show that a small but significant proportion of sleep apnoea sufferers do not exhibit symptoms, just as you yourself do not, so you are not alone. In simplest terms, if a sleep study recorded you stopping breathing you have a problem. The damage it causes your body will build up over time until something really bad happens. If you have OSA you should get treatment.
Consider that you can get a new, and very quiet, machine for a very reasonable price. Have a look at www.secondwindcpap.com or similar sites. It may be worth it if it stops you moving out of your bedroom.
Wow! Another Australian! If in doubt, mention it to your doctor. Spikes in your heart rate are not unusual in REM, but err on the side of caution.
