Interesting Development

[jjsemperfi]

So I wanted to do some different testing to find out what my issue is. As you all know, I have a very low AHI of 3. However, I sleep like crap, and at around 3 am I have large clusters of central apnea. So I thought to myself, I can test this out. I'll sleep earlier, still get the duration of sleep needed to get me into the same sleep cycle that I'm in at 3 am, but I'll shift it forward. I also tried an ace bandage to eliminate some mouth leaks (suspected mouth breather). So those two things are the only differences. I got my AHI down from 3 to .4 in one night. Interesting huh. Here is my data.

[Julie]

Very interesting... now what you need to do is test each of those two things separately, to see if you can further pin down which is responsible (if not both equally) for the difference.

[jjsemperfi]

Very interesting... now what you need to do is test each of those two things separately, to see if you can further pin down which is responsible (if not both equally) for the difference.

Agreed. Now obviously whether this is actually causing my issues is another ball of wax entirely, but it's getting me closer to possibly finding out. Strange how something happens in my sleep at around 3 am. Going to try the chin strap tonight and try sleeping at the normal time, through 3 am and see what happens.

[Julie]

Obvious as it may seem, have you checked the possibility of e.g. a nearby train whistle or something similar waking you then? Or something in your immediate environment that you otherwise haven't considered? I find that I wake up around a similar (or somewhat later) time because the duvet becomes too warm and I need to push it off a bit!

[jjsemperfi]

Obvious as it may seem, have you checked the possibility of e.g. a nearby train whistle or something similar waking you then? Or something in your immediate environment that you otherwise haven't considered? I find that I wake up around a similar (or somewhat later) time because the duvet becomes too warm and I need to push it off a bit!

Not that I've ever noticed. And even then, it would be something that is causing this big cluster of Apnea events. Not sure what environmental factor would cause that...

Again, about 75% of my apnea occurs in a 1 hour window of my whole night's sleep. That 1 hour window could be disrupting my sleep from that point on as well. Who knows, all I know is the doctors sure aren't helping so I'm trying to figure this out on my own through whatever tests I can think of.

[Julie]

The thing is, even if you had 1,000 events in that one hour - and were more awake than not - if you're sleeping relatively ok for the rest of the night you should not feel as bad as you do and should have had a pretty good amount of mostly event-free sleep otherwise, so I still think there's something else going on.

Has anyone tested you for PLMD or restless legs syndrome?

And again obvious, but what about 'silent' GERD - it's a real condition and you could try raising the head end of your bed on 5" blocks for 1-2 nights at least to test it out (the blocks make quite a difference to lots of people).

I'm thinking that the red herrings of apnea/centrals could be your system's reaction to these other problems rather than being the problem themselves.

[jjsemperfi]

The thing is, even if you had 1,000 events in that one hour - and were more awake than not - if you're sleeping relatively ok for the rest of the night you should not feel as bad as you do and should have had a pretty good amount of mostly event-free sleep otherwise, so I still think there's something else going on.

Has anyone tested you for PLMD or restless legs syndrome?

And again obvious, but what about 'silent' GERD - it's a real condition and you could try raising the head end of your bed on 5" blocks for 1-2 nights at least to test it out (the blocks make quite a difference to lots of people).

I'm thinking that the red herrings of apnea/centrals could be your system's reaction to these other problems rather than being the problem themselves.

Sleep study didn't show restless leg. Not sure about the PLMD. Don't have any big symptoms of GERD.

[Thatgirl]

The thing is, even if you had 1,000 events in that one hour - and were more awake than not - if you're sleeping relatively ok for the rest of the night you should not feel as bad as you do and should have had a pretty good amount of mostly event-free sleep otherwise, so I still think there's something else going on.

Has anyone tested you for PLMD or restless legs syndrome?

And again obvious, but what about 'silent' GERD - it's a real condition and you could try raising the head end of your bed on 5" blocks for 1-2 nights at least to test it out (the blocks make quite a difference to lots of people).

I'm thinking that the red herrings of apnea/centrals could be your system's reaction to these other problems rather than being the problem themselves.

Sleep study didn't show restless leg. Not sure about the PLMD. Don't have any big symptoms of GERD.

It's called silent GERD because it doesn't have many symptoms. In high school I started having quick weight loss and constant nausea. I never had heartburn or indigestion. I was worked up for a variety of things- all negative. I didn't improve until I started being treated for GERD. Years later I started weaning myself off my GERD medications. I thought I was doing fine because I had no GI symptoms at all. I was being treated with steroids for asthma flares fairly frequently, though. I had a routine GI follow up, and my doctor practically smacked me upside the head and put me back on all the GERD meds. My asthma is back to being well controlled.

[Julie]

Exactly.

[jjsemperfi]

The thing is, even if you had 1,000 events in that one hour - and were more awake than not - if you're sleeping relatively ok for the rest of the night you should not feel as bad as you do and should have had a pretty good amount of mostly event-free sleep otherwise, so I still think there's something else going on.

Has anyone tested you for PLMD or restless legs syndrome?

And again obvious, but what about 'silent' GERD - it's a real condition and you could try raising the head end of your bed on 5" blocks for 1-2 nights at least to test it out (the blocks make quite a difference to lots of people).

I'm thinking that the red herrings of apnea/centrals could be your system's reaction to these other problems rather than being the problem themselves.

Sleep study didn't show restless leg. Not sure about the PLMD. Don't have any big symptoms of GERD.

It's called silent GERD because it doesn't have many symptoms. In high school I started having quick weight loss and constant nausea. I never had heartburn or indigestion. I was worked up for a variety of things- all negative. I didn't improve until I started being treated for GERD. Years later I started weaning myself off my GERD medications. I thought I was doing fine because I had no GI symptoms at all. I was being treated with steroids for asthma flares fairly frequently, though. I had a routine GI follow up, and my doctor practically smacked me upside the head and put me back on all the GERD meds. My asthma is back to being well controlled.

Symptoms of GERD for the all mighty Wiki - Heartburn, regurgitation, less common are increased salvation, nausea, chest pain, coughing.

I have none of those.

[Julie]

You use Wiki as a doctor?

Seriously? Certainly it is on you to see a real doctor when you need answers to what you say is a big problem in your life, and not run to Wiki for a very general, superficial answer to it. But people here have been all the way x 10 and back, and know what they're talking about when it comes to something like this - GERD (and silent GERD) are well known to disturb sleep.

I think there's a very good chance you have acid reflux that doesn't happen to wake you (consciously, anyhow) and you need to check it out along with everything else. Take half a regular TUMS (more and you could get a backlash effect) before bed tonight and see how things go. OR raise the bed, but not both at once. And try cutting out coffee - all of it except maybe for 1-2 in the a.m. only.

[jjsemperfi]

You use Wiki as a doctor?

Seriously? Certainly it is on you to see a real doctor when you need answers to what you say is a big problem in your life, and not run to Wiki for a very general, superficial answer to it. But people here have been all the way x 10 and back, and know what they're talking about when it comes to something like this - GERD (and silent GERD) are well known to disturb sleep.

I think there's a very good chance you have acid reflux that doesn't happen to wake you (consciously, anyhow) and you need to check it out along with everything else. Take half a regular TUMS (more and you could get a backlash effect) before bed tonight and see how things go. OR raise the bed, but not both at once. And try cutting out coffee - all of it except maybe for 1-2 in the a.m. only.

Ha, don't worry, I don't live through Wiki. Here, does this help?

http://www.mayoclinic.org/diseases-cond ... n-20025201

By the way, I eat gluten free, no coffee, alcohol, soda, or a lot of processed foods. So that's already off the table.

[Julie]

Please Google Silent Reflux or Silent GERD. And read beyond the 1st entry. And gluten free etc. etc. is nice, but not necessarily relevant - you don't NEED to be a coffee (or anything else) drinker to have GERD. That is IF you want an answer to your sleep problem rather than blind agreement from us that you have apnea.

[OkyDoky]

When you post your screenshots this is what we need. This allows us to see the statistics and machine settings. We all have nights with varying AHI, glad this was a good one for you, and this is why we look for trends. Also it is helpful if you stick to one thread and that way people that reply have your full story with out having to go find your other threads.

On the left side turn off the calendar by clicking on the triangle by the date.
Also the pie chart doesn't give us very much info so you can turn it off by going to File - Preferences -Appearance - Uncheck Show event break down pie chart
That allows us to see the details on the left.

The graphs that are usually helpful are:
!. Event Flags
2. Flow Rate
3.Pressure (not mask pressure)
4. Leak
5. Flow Limit (only with Resmed machine)
Put your graph in that order by grabbing, by the labels, with your mouse and dragging it where you want it.
Now grab the line between the graphs and resize them until you get them in one screenshot.

Take a screen shot after you organize your graphs. You can push F11 ( or click file - view - fullscreen toggle) on your keyboard before you take your screenshot and it makes it full screen with no ID info.

[jjsemperfi]

When you post your screenshots this is what we need. This allows us to see the statistics and machine settings. We all have nights with varying AHI, glad this was a good one for you, and this is why we look for trends. Also it is helpful if you stick to one thread and that way people that reply have your full story with out having to go find your other threads.

On the left side turn off the calendar by clicking on the triangle by the date.
Also the pie chart doesn't give us very much info so you can turn it off by going to File - Preferences -Appearance - Uncheck Show event break down pie chart
That allows us to see the details on the left.

The graphs that are usually helpful are:
!. Event Flags
2. Flow Rate
3.Pressure (not mask pressure)
4. Leak
5. Flow Limit (only with Resmed machine)
Put your graph in that order by grabbing, by the labels, with your mouse and dragging it where you want it.
Now grab the line between the graphs and resize them until you get them in one screenshot.

Take a screen shot after you organize your graphs. You can push F11 ( or click file - view - fullscreen toggle) on your keyboard before you take your screenshot and it makes it full screen with no ID info.

Will do. Thanks