CAs only during REM?

[jamieay]

Question - is it possible / normal to have most of your CA apneas during REM sleep? Looking at my data this morning I had 34 CAs clustered in a 1 hour period about 2/3 the way through the night and only about 15 outside that period. Could these be REM related? Just trying to make sense of things.

Jamie

[JohnBFisher]

... Looking at my data this morning I had 34 CAs clustered in a 1 hour period about 2/3 the way through the night and only about 15 outside that period. Could these be REM related? ...

Actually, it is much more likely that you woke up a bit during the night. You might not remember it. We all do this all the time - awaken and fall back asleep without remembering it. When that happens we go though the transition from wakefulness to sleep. During that transition it is perfectly normal and not a problem to have some "central apnea" type apneas. They are not scored as central apneas in a sleep study, since they are just transitional.

The following article goes into MUCH more detail on this:

Ventilation is unstable during drowsiness before sleep onset
http://jap.physiology.org/cgi/reprint/99/5/2036

But as always, keep an eye on the data. If they tend to continue to cluster like this, it's quite likely that you roused enough to be awake, and then fell back asleep. You might keep track of times you awaken (write down the time on a pad of paper). Compare those times to your data.

And as always, when in doubt ... if you think this is causing problems with your sleep, then discuss it with your doctor. But only after you have collected data from numerous nights.

[LoQ]

Question - is it possible / normal to have most of your CA apneas during REM sleep? Looking at my data this morning I had 34 CAs clustered in a 1 hour period about 2/3 the way through the night and only about 15 outside that period. Could these be REM related? Just trying to make sense of things.

Jamie

Yes, they could be. Many people have more events during REM than other periods, and it is often harder to maintain good oxygen levels during REM.