What's "normal" about a central sleep apnea?

[talktobon]

My sleep study results showed that I had 2 central sleep apneas and 28 partial hyponeas. Yet the sleep doc said I don't have central sleep apnea, and that those two episodes were normal. I only have OSA. I only slept for 4 hours if that makes any difference.

Why would this be normal?

[Julie]

Most of us have a few "centrals' show up on PSG testing, and they're normal in that sense, really rather meaningless, especially as autotitrating equipment tends to read some small events as centrals when they're not large enough to be labelled as such, more like artefact than centrals. A lot of us also have some just as we're falling asleep, but again, they're not important. It's only if you have definite centrals throughout the night that can be tracked and are not confused with other events that you'd 'worry' about them. Fortunately most of us don't have to.

[jnk]

In harmony with Julie's explanation, the point is that there is a BIG difference between having a few central apneas (since most everyone does) and "having central sleep apnea."

Centrals tend to occur as one falls asleep and can also occur, as I understand it, when transitioning between other sleep stages too. So I believe that a few centrals could be considered natural and healthy.

On the other hand, a person "with central sleep apnea," or a combination of many central events along with obstructive ones, may have blood-gas/neurological conditions that need to be treated in a different way, perhaps with a machine that takes those things into consideration.

[rested gal]

Julie and jnk are right. It's quite normal to have a few centrals show up in a sleep study. We have "normal" centrals even in the day, when we're wide awake and up and about.

Links to Central Apnea discussions
viewtopic.php?p=22702

Among those links:

"Sleep onset centrals" are normal:

viewtopic.php?t=18117
page 2, from a post by StillAnotherGuest:

Assuming that the obstructive events are properly managed, then the likelihood of these being sleep-onset centrals is fairly high (you'd need PSG to be 100%) and those things are pretty much a normal event.

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And...these words from a woman who had almost exclusively Central Sleep Apnea:


viewtopic.php?p=15061#p15061
christinequilts wrote:
THink about when you exercise or concentrate hard- if your not aware you can hold your breath which is essentionally central apnea. Turning over in your sleep is basically like an exercise- you go from doing nothing to moving. If you were to have your breathing monitored while you are awake you would see a lot of 'central' events.


and here, where Christine was accidentally "guested":
viewtopic.php?p=6176#p6176

christinequilts wrote:
Most people- even those without sleep disorders- have a few central apneas while sleeping. A common cause is when you roll over...have you ever noticed when you're exercising or lifting something heavy that you hold breath unless you actually think about your breathing? The same thing can happen at night as you toss and turn. THere are other things that cause centrals too- there is a certain amount of variance in our breathing patterns when we sleep just like there is when we're awake.

I wouldn't worry about central events unless there were a significant number per hour

[BeanMeScot]

Since on CPAP, I notice that I do hold my breath when I turn over at night. I am awake and aware of it. It just seems to be normal.