Central Apneas

[tigeragent]

I have begun my 3rd week of CPAP therapy ---- question on "central apneas".

I am using ResScan to take a look at my sleep patterns, and its showing an average of 4 -5 central apneas per night averaging 13 seconds each. My AI is ranging from .5 to 1.2.

During my PSG, I only had 1 central apnea. Is this anything to be concerned about? How are central apneas treated?

FYI I have my pressure set to 11cm.

[Julie]

Hi, I would say that 4-5 a night is not excessive, but I'm a bit curious about your pressure setting... did you do that, or is that what you were prescribed as a setting? The higher you go above 10, though up to 15 is not terrible, the more chance you could have of developing centrals. Eleven is not unusual at all really, but for some people it could be a borderline of a sort and you might want to see what happens if you try a setting of 9-10, though I would ask your MD about it first. We've all seen a couple of centrals at some point I think, certainly on our tests, but if you are consistently showing some in your data, you should ask your MD about them.

[timbalionguy]

When are these centrals occurring? In a cluster, or randomly? Many people experience 'sleep onset centrals' when changing sleep stages, especially in lighter sleep stages. These are generally harmless, although 13 seconds is beginning to be a bit long. I would agree with Julie that 4-5 centrals a night is nothing to really worry about, although I would discuss these with your doctor.

[tigeragent]

11cm was my prescribed pressure. My S9 is set to CPAP mode, but I might try switching to APAP with a range of 9 - 13 to see if that changes anything.

From looking at the data, the centrals are mostly clustered together....

[JohnBFisher]

Since the apneas are clustered, it is quite probable that these are sleep onset central apneas. When we switch from breathing while awake to breathing while asleep, we actually change mechanisms that help drive our breathing. This change often includes some instability during sleep onset. So a few central apneas clustered are generally not a big deal. Even if it occurs in the middle of the night, it is quite likely you woke up briefly - for example to move from one side to another - then fell asleep quite quickly. We all do this. And when you fall asleep you might have a few central apneas.

By the way, during a sleep study, those central apneas would NOT be scored as central apneas. This is in fact perfectly normal and is just considered a sleep onset apnea.

If these clustered central apneas are not bothering you, then you can probably just keep an eye on them.

Hope that helps explain the situation.