Thanks for those screen shots.
The RERAs definitely appear to be real: Even at this scale you can see distortion of the inhalations that end with the large recovery breaths at the end of the RERAs (where the RERA flag is). But most of the rest of the breathing doesn't really look like it's that distorted even though your machine is scoring FL throughout the 4:30-4:45 screen shot. Most of those breaths just don't look substantially different than the ones in the 4:45-5:00 screen shot where there are little or no FL scored after 4:48.
My take is that the real FL seem to be closely correlated with RERAs being scored by your machine, and the FLs that are not closely tied to a RERA may not actually be "real" FL at all. Others may differ with my opinion however.
From your responses to my questions, I think you do need to start tackling the old "sleep hygiene" problems. It may help you sleep better even if it doesn't improve your data numbers. And overall quality of sleep is the real goal, not a super low AHI or RDI or perfect FL graph.
In particular:
I know it's not easy, but trying to stabilize the sleep schedule would probably help. (She says as she knows that this is one of her own big, on-going bugaboo issues with sleep that is too fragile.)cby1 wrote:Thank you Robysue - thorough as always. Answers below:
Not really - although some nights I will wake up every few hours - not clear what the cause is. I usually drop off within 10-15 min.Any reason to believe that you are waking up a lot during the night? Any sense of spending a lot of time tossing and turning and semi-awake? How long does it take you to get to sleep at night?I do need more - generally get 7 1/2 - 8 - machine is always on - for 11 years . And yes, I need to get to bed earlier.On the night you posted the data, you apparently didn't go to bed until 3:15 and you got up at 9:50. That's only about 6 1/2 hours of machine time. Any chance you just need more sleep? Have you tried pushing bedtime back to 2:15 or 1:15? What happens when you go to bed earlier?No - and that's an issue. Tends to be 1-9, but varies. That's my fault.Do you have a regular sleep schedule? If so, what's it look like?
I'd suggest picking a set wake up time that works for your overall lifestyle. And make sure that you get up at the same time every day regardless of how much (or how little) sleep you got the previous night.
Temporarily set bedtime approximately 7 hours before your desired wake up time. Try to NOT go to bed until your scheduled bedtime even if it means struggling to stay awake for the last 30-60 minutes or so. If you are NOT sleepy at bedtime, you may want to stay up until you are sleepy, but do try to keep it reasonable and try to make sure that you still have a chance to get 6 hours of sleep or so.
If there's no evidence of sleep fragmentation after a week or so of getting a "decent" 7 hours of sleep, then push bedtime back to 7.5 hours before your desired wake up time. Once you feel like you are actually sleeping for most of those 7.5 hours for a week or so, then push bedtime back to 8 hours before you want to get up.
Not meaning to sound like a teetotaler, but that may be enough alcohol to be affecting your sleep cycles. Typically alcohol can make it easier to fall asleep, but alcohol can also reduce REM or delay REM. And if you're not getting enough REM, that could explain some of your ongoing problems with not feeling as well as you should. (http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/ne ... ol-sleep#1)No Caffiene (anxiety issue; not clear if OSA caused, or "primary" anxiety). Alcohol, 2-3 beers (*not* under-reported) with dinner most nights.How much caffeine are you consuming? What about alcohol?
If you're game, you might want to experiment and see if cutting back to 1 beer per night makes any difference in your sleep.
A bedtime routine and some down time might help.Nothing in bed - but I also don't schedule any down time.Do you spend a lot of time reading, watching tv, or web browsing in bed? Do you build in some "down time" before going to bed each night?
I'll write more later.