Variable Breathing on My Encore

From what I understand, the variable breathing is going to be unique to each individual. The whole mileage may vary thing. But in general, are we trying to shoot for higher averages? I notice in people's postings that there seems to be some correlation in higher percentages and people feeling better. My AHI has been pretty good in the month i've been on APAP. Snoring still relatively high, but i guess the REmstar is extra sensitive to that. But for the past 4 weeks my variable breathing is always under 10 percent, sometimes as low as 3%.

On Dereks page from the sticky about his My Encore with definitions, he quoted Variable breathing as a "less peaceful" state of sleep. so I would have thought that my low percentage would be good. But I'm starting to wonder if mine should be higher. I've read in some people's posts that theirs are as high as in the 30%. I wonder if I am acheiving each stage of sleep properly. I never recieved this information in my sleep study report. I know they hooked me up with electrodes on my head. But yet the report says nothing about my sleep architecture etc.

If anyone has any comments or suggestions to post. I am worried that my variable breathing is too low. I don't meet with my sleep doc for two more months and I still feel yucky and very tired even though my numbers on the software look good. I wish I could post them but I don't know how to post my graphs. But the numbers are good except the variable breathing. NO real mask leaks either.

Thanks everybody in advance
Suzy

I know that variable breathing occurs during a more "active" stage of sleep such as REM, and is important for mental restoration and state of mind, just as non-variable, or "even" level breathing would be ideal during delta or deep phases of sleep. Both are important. However i am not sure what exact number range should be aiming for. For AHI it is under 5, but not sure either what is good for Variable breathing, still new to this software thing also.

The problem is you don't know if your variable breathing that is always under 10 percent is when you are asleep or is the variable breathing of being awake. The average time a person spends in REM sleep is around 20%.

Fraction of Time in Variable Breathing: "Variable breathing" is defined as the situation when a person is not undergoing the quiet steady breathing of several stages of sleep. In particular, according to the Respironics patent" it happens during wakefulness, distress, and REM sleep. This chart may be taken as an indication of how "peaceful" a night was. Since REM sleep is a desirable state, some variable breathing is obviously a good thing.

myencore.php#VarBreath

Liz