OSCAR Data

I've been on a ResMed APAP for 6 months which has reduced my AHI from a sleep study reported AHI of 8 to now between .5 and 2.5, averaging around 1.25. (I have another thread on here from when I began if anybody wanted to reference where I came from with all of this) The bulk of the AHI is centrals for me. In the sleep study it was mostly hypopneas and centrals as secondary. I average between 1.5 minutes and 3 minutes as total time in apnea. I still don't feel well rested..ever. I've had testing for anemia, thyroid, etc. An EKG and a cardiac echo. A brain MRI and MRA which were unremarkable. Anyway, I notice spikes in my flow rate throughout the night and am wondering if these are disturbing my sleep. Any thoughts are appreciated.

I notice spikes in my flow rate throughout the night and am wondering if these are disturbing my sleep. Any thoughts are appreciated.

It is kind of a chicken and egg thing. Do the flow disturbances cause an arousal, or does an arousal cause the flow disturbance? Hard to say. You may gain a little more insight if you expand those events a little more. You may be able to see whether the event while not flagged is an obstructive event or central event. After 4 seconds of flow interruption the machine tries to cycle the flow up and down quite fast. If the pressure goes up and down more, it concluded it is an obstructive event, and if it lasts for 10 seconds it gets flagged as obstructive. If pressure does not go up and down as much with the flow oscillation, it concludes it is a central event. You can tell the difference best if you can find a CA and OA event real close together and expand them up to see the difference.

As far as if it is disturbing your sleep if the flow goes back to normal and regular quickly that would suggest you have not really woken up or have recovered from it quite fast. If there are further events and irregular breathing that would suggest your sleep has been disturbed.