Machine is happy. Oximeter isn't.

My pulse oximeter says I'm having desaturations about 20 times per hour. My CPAP machine thinks my AHI is usually below five. On the flow rate graph (not OSCAR, because the machine is an ibreeze, which isn't compatible with OSCAR), there are lots of fluctuations in my breathing. The oximeter also says my SpO2 spends a lot of time below 95, even when both the breathing and the oximeter readings are very steady.

I can also generate lots of very brief desaturations when I'm awake. All I have to do is breathe slowly and exhale deeply. I feel fine when I do that, so I would be inclined to think that the brief desaturations aren't a problem when I'm asleep either.

Problem is, I have obesity and diabetes (managed with Ozempic, well enough to make the doctors happy). Disordered breathing during sleep is possibly both a cause and an effect of both conditions. So if I can, I want to treat my sleep apnea beyond the level that would normally be considered good enough.

How can I tell the relevant areas of my unconscious, sleeping brain to raise the set-point for my breathing?

dsws wrote: ↑

Wed Jul 16, 2025 8:30 am

How can I tell the relevant areas of my unconscious, sleeping brain to raise the set-point for my breathing?

You can't, and it is not necessary. Unless you have central sleep apnea, your brain sends the correct signals for breathing.

Could you please post a picture of your oximeter report in this thread? If you don't know how to post a photo, just ask.

Let's see if this works ... .



Apparently not.

Maybe this one ...

<img src="https://ibb.co/Lhp18M1J">

Or does it work as just a link?

https://ibb.co/Lhp18M1J

Well, the link works, at least. But how do I post it so it shows up as an image?

dsws wrote: ↑

Sat Jul 19, 2025 8:42 pm

But how do I post it so it shows up as an image?

Yeah, that was tricky...

AHI only includes events 10 seconds or longer, but your body does not care, events 7,8 or 9 seconds can effect your ODI as can flow limitations.
So, even short apnea events can lead to drops in oxygen saturation, contributing to a higher ODI.

You could set user flags in Oscar and possibly get helpful detailed info.

Jdougc74 wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 20, 2025 8:30 am

You could set user flags in Oscar ...

My machine isn't compatible with OSCAR (yeah, in retrospect I probably should have spent the extra money for an OSCAR-compatible machine), but most mornings I've been looking through my flow-rate graph on the software it does use. In a typical night's squiggles I see a handful of events that look as though they would count as apneas if they lasted a few seconds longer. They don't add up to the number of desats that the oximeter reports. Also (and, I suspect, more importantly) they don't explain the long stretches where there might not be a lot of desats, but my baseline is 90% or 92% instead of 95% or 98%.

Nocibur wrote: ↑

Sun Jul 20, 2025 3:44 am

Yeah, that was tricky...

Thank you.

So it looks as though what I need to do is view the image on the image-hosting website, right-click to get "copy image link", and use that in the BBCode instead of the URL that the hosting site gave me. Let's see if it works this time: