Oscar Data Review - Eliminated OA's, Dealing w/ CA's

Hello there! I was diagnosed with mild-moderate sleep apnea in Dec 2019 and regularly use both mouth tape and a soft cervical collar as I sleep on my back. Thanks to this wonderful forum, I've eliminated just about all obstructive apneas and have lost a significant amount of weight since my diagnosis which may or may not have played a role.

I track my sleep daily using an Oura ring and I compare awake times to Oscar's apneas which matches based on the time stamp. So I'm very convinced the apneas are causing awake times or on some occasions, I'm awake beforehand and a false apnea is reported. I still rarely dream and have a hard time remembering memories which I think is correlated to a lack of REM sleep because of the constant wake up's that don't allow me to get a full sleep cycle. I'm hoping to resolve this unrestless sleep I've been dealing with for a long time now although I've been following plenty of sleep hygiene tips.

I've included several clusters of central apneas that fit in a 10 minute interval so the data is easier to review

Note: One thing alarming is my high respiratory rate in the last few days which is far out of the usual 12-20 range. Not sure if that has an effect.

Day 1 - Overview, CA Cluster 1, 2, 3, & 4
https://imgur.com/a/B67bYR2

Day 2 - Overview, CA Cluster 1, 2
https://imgur.com/a/LQgvbge

Just got a chance to look over Pugsy's post regarding false positive flagging of central apneas.

I also noticed that the moment EPR Ramp Only turns off after 45 mins, my respiratory rate goes off the roof so I'm going to try to keep it on the entire time.

androosaid wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 01, 2023 12:29 pm

convinced the apneas are causing awake times or on some occasions, I'm awake beforehand and a false apnea is reported.

In harmony with your statement, it is just as possible that restless/disturbed sleep can cause pauses in breathing as it is possible that pauses in breathing are disturbing sleep. Chicken/egg question.

Sleep-wake-junk sleep is sometimes a matter of seemingly alternating between sleep and wake and other times a matter of sort of getting stuck temporarily in no-man's land between wake and sleep, in a sense having extensive repeated sleep-initiation pauses and sleep-interruption pauses. Pain--physical/mental/emotional--sometimes is a contributer to that for some.

As you say, principles of sleep hygiene can help while keeping the airway as stable as possible. But someone who is prone to rough sleep who is easily disturbed during sleep may not always achieve a great reported AHI from a home treatment machine. That is why we get AHI as low as reasonably possible as averaged over time, but without obsessively expecting PAP always to solve all things that can affect our sleep-breathing.

Congrats on all the progress you have made!