Sleepyhead CA's?

[Moat]

What is a CA as listed in sleepyhead? On my second night and everything seems to be going well. Still fighting a little with leaks but much better than last night.

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[Pugsy]

CA ..Clear Airway cessation of breathing as opposed to Obstructive apneas and hyponeas which are either full or partial cessation of breathing due to airway tissue collapse and subsequent obstruction.
CA is Respironics term for a Central apnea event. If you hold your breath for 10 seconds that is a 10 second clear airway cessation of breathing or central apnea.

It is normal for people to have a few centrals. They are common when in sleep transition stages and even turning over in bed. People often hold their breath when turning over in bed and don't realize it.

We don't worry about centrals unless there are a whole lot of them every hour, every night. Yours are well under the "worry about" number. They will vary from night to night anyway. Sometimes I might have none at all and sometimes my reports will look like yours in regards to the CA index.

[Moat]

Thanks Pugsy I love this website!

[Air Force Retired]

Hi Moat---Pugsy and I have been looking at my chart and I have the same problem, only much worse. The few minutes before fully awakening on my chart is almost all purple almost every day. As Pugsy says, I turn from side to side through out the night and I know I stop breathing as I turn over, it's an automatic thing. I couldn't figure out why I was having such high AHI numbers until we looked at my timelines. The other night I had to make a sandbox run at just past midnight. After getting back in bed and turning my machine back on I had a series of CA's and then everything settled down and was good until just a few minutes before becomeing fully awake. Had the same thing, boo-koo CA's. So now, I don't watch the AHI figures as closely but I watch the graph to see what happens between going to bed and when the mega CA's start at wakeup time.

Hope this gives you some assurance you are doing OK.

[Java Time]

After getting back in bed and turning my machine back on I had a series of CA's and then everything settled down and was good until just a few minutes before becoming fully awake. Had the same thing, boo-koo CA's. So now, I don't watch the AHI figures as closely but I watch the graph to see what happens between going to bed and when the mega CA's start at wakeup time.

Pugsy and others have mentioned not worrying too much about the "AHI" alone. The light bulb just went on for me that part of the reason people say don't look at AHI alone is these "rolling over" or "moving the pillow" CAs can mess with your AHI!

I didn't know I held my breath when I rolled over until I went on CPAP. Because of the increased pressure from the machine, I am more aware of "not breathing" when I roll around. The "not breathing" external pressure does make me wake up a little bit more when I roll over or move the pillow around. I'm sure that also drives CAs and explains why I may have more CAs certain mornings when I am rolling around trying to decide if I can go back to sleep or need to get up.

[Air Force Retired]

exactly-----I usually always lay there for a while, dozing in and out, trying to decide if I want to get up or not As Pugsy told me, if I really want to know what the AHI number really is I can figure the numbers manually: Count the number of "single" CA's between the batches, add to the other figures and you should come real close, within 1.

[Moat]

Thanks for the reply folks.....that would make sense because early in the morning is when my wife wakes up and im rolling over to the middle of the bed (more space FTW)

[archangle]

CA is Respironics term for a Central apnea event.

I think that's not quite correct, but it's not too bad. There's a pretty good chance a Clear Airway event is a central apena, but some central apneas won't show up as clear airway events.

I like to think of it as "Clear Airway means the machine's best guess is that it's a central apnea."

[Pugsy]

I think that's not quite correct, but it's not too bad. There's a pretty good chance a Clear Airway event is a central apena, but some central apneas won't show up as clear airway events.

I like to think of it as "Clear Airway means the machine's best guess is that it's a central apnea."

Well that's a thought. It's not bad.

[archangle]

We should also remember that even an in-lab PSG with humans scoring the results, you don't always get the same numbers between two different scorers.