blood oxygen

I am wondering if a blood oxygen meter would be jystvas accurate as a sleep disorder overnight test ?

No! It's just one tool, in the arsenal needed to find out what's going on with your sleep. Jim

The other way around, if at all. I have a blood ox meter and only use it sometimes to see if my ox level is dropping when I see strange waveforms on my CPAP data. My ox level has never gone below 92% no matter what my AHI is doing, 0-10 on CPAP.

Gsbuck@bellsouth.net wrote:I am wondering if a blood oxygen meter would be just as accurate as a sleep disorder overnight test ?

Your question has more than one possible answer depending on what you actually want to know.

First, a home pulse oximeter is not quite as accurate as the ones used in sleep labs. I have both types and notice that my home units (CMS50F models) deliver a reading about 1 - 1.5% lower than the lab grade one that I also use.

Second, sleep apnea can do different things to you. It can result in a low blood oxygen level (SpO2) that by itself is harmful and causes damage if the SpO2 is low enough for long enough. It can also cause disturbances in your sleep (obstructive sleep apnea) that causes a panic reaction to the sudden inability to breathe. The airway either closes entirely or partially and prevents normal breathing. This puts stress on multiple parts of the body and, over time, can damage your heart, etc. In this case, the SpO2 level will not necessarily drop down to dangerous levels but may very well remain above 92% which is considered safe.

In addition, there is a third sleep apnea effect called central sleep apnea in which you would just stop breathing for a while, experience no panic reaction, and, if short enough, not experience any or little lowering of the SpO2 level.

There are other types of disordered breathing conditions not mentioned but these are the more common ones.

So, while a home pulse oximeter can provide useful data in the case in which the blood oxygen level falls, It cannot provide any information about the remaining sleep apnea symptoms. In the larger sense, a home oxygen meter is a very poor substitute for an actual polysomnogram (either at home or in a sleep lab) and may lead you to believe that you don't have sleep apnea while a possibly serious condition may go undiagnosed.