What would 200 to 300 events per hour mean?

I read where a middle aged woman of normal weight had 200 to 300 episodes per hour in her in lab study . Also 1 other including a man

What would that breathing difficulty signify? Dementia? or not necessarily? Can this happen to many people?

I would be interested in where you read that. I highly suspect that it is accurate since by definition an apnea must last 10 seconds. Can this happen to many people? Probably about none. Please use this forum more wisely.

That seems high as was pointed out the maximum number of 10 second events would 360 per hour. However I have heard of diagnosis AHI's over 100. It can be obstructive apnea, or it can be central apnea including a special condition called Cheyne Stokes Respiration. This is basically when the control system regulating breathing goes unstable, and it results in back to back CA events. There can be many causes including heart failure or use of drugs such as opioids. This is one example of a situation where one would want to have a full in lab sleep study, as well as an investigation of other potential cardiovascular issues.

Central apnea can be made worse by CPAP treatment. Here is one example of pretty bad Central Apnea while using an APAP. The green highlighted areas are flagged as potential Cheyne Stokes Respiration (CSR).

Maybe I worded it wrong I’ll look into it again but thanks for response

Can the cpap or bipap show if the CA or other apnea’s is being made worsening by the machine? Like where it says AHI?

I don't think it's wrong to question the parameters of an illness if it helps us understand the relevance of the data.

As Sierra implied we only have 3600 seconds in an hour.

Presuming that to exhale and inhale takes 2 seconds that brings us back to a maximum of 300 events per hour.

From what I understand many of us have events that last for 20 seconds and some even 50 seconds or more.

If we rework the numbers on 20 second pauses with a 2 second breath then it reduces to around 160 events per hour.

It's likely that a 2 second breath is not common and most would perhaps manage a few breaths between events and probably breath for the same duration as they pause which, for 20 second events, would bring the number down to 90 events per hour.

I suspect that mild or moderate cases are a slightly different process that results in breathing winding down to a pause every 2 - 10 minutes but being largely sustainable in the interim.

Of course these are only numbers and guesses, and even if by some fluke they might seem to make sense, nothing to do with individual humans is consistent or predictable.