Recent longer apneas

Hi folks,

I'm new to CPAPtalk and on my 9th month of APAP therapy.

I've started to experience a relatively new occurrence. I've started getting longer obstructive events that are unusual for me (approx. 45-48 seconds), and with it, symptoms of desaturation. My obstructive events are usually much shorter.

Does anyone have any experience with longer apneic events? I have a few ideas as to management, but would appreciate others' advice/experiences.

Thanks in advance.

Have you had recent labs, exam, whatever for cardiac status? Sometimes things change that are independent of OSA or Cpap and it might be a good idea to check them out with your MD.

Can you check your machine reports to see what is happening to the pressure during one of these events?
Perhaps, the machine can't (not auto adjusting machine) or isn't (because of settings) increasing the pressure enough to solve/prevent them.
BTW I'm unfamiliar with your particular model so I don't know whether of not it is an auto adjusting machine.

If these were central apneas, then your machine wouldn't be able to do anything about them.

Apologies for my much belated reply.

Thank you Julie, for the reminder of a check-up. I have indeed in the past months been diagnosed with several conditions which I understand can be related to sleep-disordered breathing.

I have also developed central apneas, also long in duration, though not frequent in number to warrant the diagnosis of central apnea. However, given their long duration, I have been advised to purchase a more advanced machine from my doctor.

Indeed, a cursory literature search found that in a specific population, the apnea duration was implicated to be as detrimental as, if not more deleterious to health than AHI, albeit within OSA (Wu et al., 2016).

Thank you also to JDS74 for your input. My current machine is an autoCPAP and the pressure settings may no longer be appropriate as you suggest. Furthermore, as you mention, these machines are not designed for central apneas.

Thanks again for all your input and hope everyone continues to have better sleep outcomes.