Help with interpreting Pulse Oximeter results.

Hello I am new to the forums, I am a male 27 5'10 weigh 160lbs, over the past few years I noticed that I have not gotten restorative sleep. I also noticed within the past few months that I grind my teeth as I feel pain on my teeth when I wake up sometimes. I do not snore from what I have been told, however those first two things in addition to sometimes having dreams where in the dreams I cannot breathe and then waking up right after with a clogged nose or mucus filled throat, made me a bit nervous. I bought a pulse oximeter a week ago and ran the data on it, I am wondering if there is anything fishy in terms of the data collected? It seems pretty consistent with the other two nights I collected as well.

https://flic.kr/p/21CJHkU

If it is not sleep apnea, any guess on what it could be by the way?

Any advice is appreciated, thank you for your time.

Sounds to me like you might find an antihistamine useful. That's all. Your 02 is quite obviously fine, normal. And it's a long disproved myth that being male, being overweight and/or having an (outside) neck measurement of anything much are indicative of apnea. Google Epworth Sleepiness Scale and find the short test that will either assure you that apnea's not your problem, or else (I'd be surprised) that you have many of the symptoms and should be tested. You could also talk to your MD about your (to me, who's had personal experience of both apnea and seasonal allergic rhinitis) symptoms. Don't look for trouble where it isn't. However be careful with antihistamines - the 'non drowsy' kind will keep you awake all night... better to try very small amounts of the orig. type (not nondrowsy) close to bedtime when sleepiness won't matter to you as much. Right now you just want to experiment, not necessarily 'cure' anything.

Ignorance knows no bounds, not even in science.

That pulse oximeter report appears solid, since there is only 0.1% artifact in almost 7 hours of recording. Further, you also spent 99% of the night at an SpO2 of 95 or greater. While a normal saturation cannot rule out sleep disordered breathing, it wouldn't be the first thing that I would suspect. As Julie mentioned, take some steps to alleviate the junk building up in your nose/throat and see what happens.

If you have a plugged nose from allergies, and don't want anything ramping up your HR or causing loss of sleep,...try some OTC Flonase. The cheaper drug store brand is fine.

I use it for a few weeks every pollen season. It takes several days to help if you are already stuffy though, so don't expect instant gratification like Afrin or the like.

While your oxygen levels look good, I am left with the impression that you never entered the deeper stages of sleep. Your pulse rate settled down initially and then went basically flat.

I am used to seeing a little more fluctuation and interaction between pulse rate and O2 levels during sleep. It looks like you sat down and took a nap. I have seen similar reports when sitting down and reading a good book.

Thank you all for taking a look yeah I suppose the allergies would be the main thing to take a look at I guess I was just worried due to always feeling tired no matter how long I sleep and the dreams of not being able to breathe and then waking up.

HoseCrusher wrote:While your oxygen levels look good, I am left with the impression that you never entered the deeper stages of sleep. Your pulse rate settled down initially and then went basically flat.

I am used to seeing a little more fluctuation and interaction between pulse rate and O2 levels during sleep. It looks like you sat down and took a nap. I have seen similar reports when sitting down and reading a good book.

Hmm in this regards the thing is every day without fail I wake up twice once within two hours after falling asleep and then the second time is generally anywhere from 4-6 hours after falling asleep again. The first time I do not remember my dreams but it seems no matter what I remember my dreams during the second time I fall asleep, I saw not remembering could be a sign of apnea so I thought that might be a sign I don't have it due to being able to remember them, not sure if that is true though.

Did you look at the test I suggested? It would give your MD something to go by if a sleep study was to be considered.

Julie wrote:Did you look at the test I suggested? It would give your MD something to go by if a sleep study was to be considered.

Yeah I did check out the epsworth sleepiness scale, on that I scored a 5, so lower level. I don't think any of those situations I would fall asleep in except about 7 hours after I wake up I feel extremely tired for about 1-2 hours and then all of the sudden don't feel nearly as tired after that for some reason haha.

Maybe you're eating too many carbs at lunch - it knocks many out afterward for a couple of hrs.