Is there any correlation between CSA/OSA/UARS and feelings of throat tightness?

I've seen a lot of users on various forums talk about throat tightness during the day. Mine stays all day, but only on certain days and seems to go away when I use CPAP and get enough sleep. It is right in the area where you would check your pulse on your check, on both sides. Just a symptom of low blood pressure maybe? My neck muscles will feel tight and shaky when moving my head. Shortness of breath throughout the day on days when I sleep poorly and what I believe to be either POTS/Dysautonomia/autonomic dysfunction. It gets better when I use my CPAP for about 8+ hours for a day or two.

These are days when I sleep poorly and also feel really tired and shaky/jittery in my general daily motions and muscle movements. My blood pressure will either register a little bit low or normal, but resting heart rate may be slightly higher (usually lower to upper 90's resting). The blood pressure monitor lights up the "irregular heartbeat" icon, which the instructions say means that your heart rate increased or decreased by at least 25% during the time of the test (which takes about 30 seconds or less). Some days I feel dizzy in my head and kind of weird in my stomach.

Previous sleep study in 2018 showed 4.7 AHI, 18 RDI with 50 respiratory events (mostly RERAs) in 2.75 hours. I had like 6 minutes of REM sleep. Had deviated septum and turbinate reduction surgery. I breathe more easily and quicker, but sleep is still poor. Home sleep study showed 5.2 AHI. Sleep doc wouldn't give CPAP. ENT doc wrote a prescription for me to try one and see if it helped, based on my home sleep study results.

I had a home sleep study in April 2019 with a new sleep doctor due to Covid-19. It showed 13 apneas/hour. He didn't believe it was accurate. I'm 5'8, 150 pounds. Muscular and in shape. 37 years old. So we did an in-lab sleep study. 64 apneas/hour. I had my titration study last night (June 9). I used my P10 nasal pillow mask. She said it worked very well. She said she usually starts out at 5cm pressure and increases when they go to sleep. I asked for more because I tend to start out at 7cm and anything below that makes me feel like I'm suffocating. She started at 6cm. She later told me off the record outside while waiting on my ride...that she saw some central apneas. She started me at 6cm and kept increasing it, but it wasn't working for me on CPAP, so she remotely switched it to BiPap mode and I started responding. So now I'm not sure if I have 64 true apneas/hour plus central sleep apnea or what. She felt like the BiPap worked very well, but noted that it took a while for her to see that the CPAP wasn't working for me and switch to BiPap. She said I slept very well, but I felt like I woke up all night and kept tossing and turning. So I felt like garbage all day today. I have to wait a week for the results to come back. I mentioned to her that I had been talking to the sleep doctor about a possible BiPap and she said that it is expensive and can be overkill. So I'm not sure at the moment if I do or don't need BiPap, but it apparently worked during my titration when the CPAP wasn't helping. This confuses me even more because if I sleep 8+ hours at home for a couple of days with my CPAP, I'll feel much better and will get through most or all of the day without feeling the dizziness and autonomic dysfunction. So how the heck can CPAP not work in the lab and seem to work for me at home? Among our other discussions were that the actual measurements of an APAP/CPAP machine are basically garbage. It may say 1.5 AHI and you might be having a lot more issues than it is truly saying and only the PSG would pick them up.

I saw that they had an Alice setup for the sleep monitoring. They had a large BiPap on the table that was obviously remotely controlled for her to adjust. It could do CPAP mode and BiPap. What kind of machine could that have been?

When I had the titration and was on I presume the CPAP, I felt like I was floating above the room. Never had that feeling with CPAP at home.

I've been to virtually every other doctor, had thyroid checked, heart checked, tons of blood work, etc. Cardiologist and primary care doc think it is my sleep.

People on this forum suggested you be checked for Dysautonomia, POTS and/or Raynauds, have you gone to specialists that are experts in those issues? Your primary care doctor probably would not have the expertise to diagnose them.

My niece has POTS. Fortunately a friend of my sister's who also has a child with POTS told my sister that my niece's weird health issues sounded like POTS. A specialist then confirmed it. Usually it takes about 5 years of complaining to doctors before the doctor might suspect POTS or send you to a specialist that knows about POTS. My niece's POTS is much less of a problem because she now drinks salt water all day: https://www.shape.com/healthy-eating/di ... -salt-diet

If a doctor thinks you might have POTS, have you tried treatment with salt water?

It sounds like you are not getting enough sleep for weeks on end and that will cause all sorts of symptoms. I felt weird symptoms in my neck when I was very stressed a few years ago, having a conflict with someone, and not getting much sleep.

I think any BiPap machine can also do CPAP mode.

No one one this forum is going to be able to help you if you don't get a 'data capable' machine and use the OSCAR software and posts your OSCAR charts screenshots exactly as described int he 'Newbie' sticky posts.

Do you have a CPAP machine now? If so please update your profile so your equipment shows in your signature line, and start posting some OSCAR charts.

Also you say "It gets better when I use my CPAP for about 8+ hours for a day or two." ???? If you do need CPAP, then you need to use it EVERY NIGHT and for every nap. Again, people on this forum will give up on trying to help you if you don't take this seriously and use CPAP every night.

And let us know if you have seen specialists besides your primary and cardiologist, they probably wouldn't know much about POTS or Dysautonomia.

It sounds like you may need to switch to a better sleep doctor. I would dump the doc who didn't even want you to try CPAP. Also, if the sleep lab said you did better on a BiPap, then you should tell your sleep doctor that, and ask for a BiPap.

You might have a more serious sleep disorder and not just obstructive apnea, so for you, finding a competent sleep doctor is essential.

As for the out of body experience (OBE), scientists are starting to study OBEs more. It can be caused by problems in the brain, inner ear problems, medications or recreational drugs (e.g. ketamine), high stress or trauma, seizures, and very often happen to pilots who do maneuvers where they are subjected to high-G forces.
OBEs might also be induced, intentionally or accidentally, hypnosis or meditative trance, brain stimulation, dehydration or extreme physical activity, electric shock, or sensory deprivation.

https://www.livescience.com/50683-out-o ... usion.html

Sleep paralysis, a temporary state of waking paralysis that occurs during REM sleep and often involves hallucinations, has also been noted as a possible cause of OBEs. Episodes of sleep paralysis may occur along with another sleep disorder known as narcolepsy. OBEs can also be due to Guillain-Barre syndrome. Some people just seem prone to having OBEs often for no known cause that doctors can figure out, especially when they are lying down to go to sleep.

It sounds like you have been trying a lot of things, but I don't think you have found the right specialist (e.g POTS specialist?) and sleep doctor yet. Don't give up.

Well, the sleep tech in the most recent in-lab titration study told me that the CPAP "wasn't working" when she tried it and I responded when she switched to BiPap remotely. I have an Air Sense 10 Autoset and user OSCAR to look at my results. I use the P10 nasal pillow mask.

Then my experience with CPAP varies. For instance, I have had one day last week with the 8+ hours (I was using CPAP other days, but that's my 'best' recent day for example when I slept with it on all night). I kept the exact same settings. But unlike last week, last night I tried it and got 1 hour 40 minutes and voluntarily removed my mask to sleep without it for the rest of the night. Why? Irritated and tired. Felt like I was suffocating. Just couldn't sleep for some reason. My results are different on different days. I expect some variation, just not that much.

In my most recent sleep doctor appointment, he noted that my turbinates are swollen even though I had them reduced and had septoplasty in 2018. He talked about coming in for allergy testing at some point.

So now my current curiosity is why the BiPap magically worked to help fix my apneas in the lab, but the CPAP wasn't working on them. In the lab the other day, she used a Phillips Omnilab titration system. Yes, it is a BiPap that can do CPAP.

The sleep technologist told me about my central apneas that she saw while I was waiting on my Uber outside of the lab and she was ready to go home, but of course that was off the record. I suspect that she noted the BiPap in my chart. Now I'm curious WHY BiPap worked better than APAP that I'm using, but will ask him directly when the topic of central apneas comes up per the test results.

I have considered sleep paralysis for the "brain waking up 10-15 seoconds before my body" thing. I don't get the pounding heart thing or the odd feelings that I have when my brain wakes up first on days when I'm more rested, so I'm not sure that I have it. So I'm suspecting my sleep issues. Even the dizziness and autonomic dysfunction goes away when I sleep better for a day or two. I'm not completely convinced that I have POTS. I've researched general sleep deprivation and it causes general muscle weakness, memory fog, shakiness, etc. It can also cause low blood pressure, which in and of itself can cause more apneas because of interaction in the diaphragm.

I haven't given up on this sleep doc yet. At first he simply was suspicious because I'm young at 37, not overweight, muscular and fit, don't have a large neck, etc. When his own lab came back with 64 apneas/hour, then he started being more open to it. He simply didn't trust the other labs because he said that his measures true apneas (I think he said at least 10 seconds or more) vs how some labs registered "more" apneas with a smaller number of seconds in length. So we'll also have to see if I have central apneas on the regular sleep study vs this titration study in the same lab with two different techs.

The sleep tech who did my most recent titration study used to own her own sleep lab before running this one that my doctor has. She's the sleep lab manager and noticed a lot of things that the previous sleep tech either didn't tell me about or didn't notice.