Periodic Breathing

Hello,

Just got a new CPAP machine, and used it for the first time last night. It has lots of bells and whistles compared to my last machine, and one of the things it shows is Periodic Breathing.

It showed 3% for the reading for the first night.

I've read some about what this is but, I still am not really sure what is going on here.

Does this mean that I am beginning to have Central Apnea's or that there may be a cardiac issue, or nothing to be concerned about at all?

I tried SleepyHead to read my card data, but, it will not import for some reason.

Thanks in advance.

For the SleepyHead issue...what is the model of machine that you are using? It's on a sticker on the bottom of the machine...a 3 digit number and what is the version that your SleepyHead is showing...that's in the upper left corner when SleepyHead is open.
Your computer? Is it a Mac or Windows?

Periodic Breathing may or may not mean anything exciting.
Periodic Breathing by definition is just a general waxing and waning of the breathing air flow that lasts for 2 minutes or longer.
I see PB for short periods fairly often and no events are seen with it at all. This is where it would be nice if you could get SleepyHead going so you can zoom in on the PB time.
Not all PB equals CSR or that heart issue thing. CSR is just a form of PB and not the only form.
A LOT of PB with a LOT of centrals (CAs) mixed in with the air flow we might worry more but we need to see the detailed report before going into panic mode.

This may help.

I finally got SleepyHead working.

I narrowed down the Periodic Breathing episodes, but do not know how they relate to the rest of the data:

That events tab makes it hard to get a picture of the PB.
Click on one of those episodes of PM and the graphs on the right will automatically zoom in on it and you can see if any sort of events were happening with it.

This is an example of mine...95% of all my PB flagged times look like this and not exciting at all. There's nothing here to get excited about.

Some periodic breathing (less than 10 or 15 percent) is not a big deal. We all have some episodes (some folks more frequently than others) of periodic breathing. Even if your unit and software flag it, it may still not be a big issue, since as Pugsy notes, not all events are in fact periodic breathing (it often produces "false positives").

At 3%, I would not worry. If it's above the 10% mark, it might be time to chat with your doctor about it.

JohnBFisher wrote:Some periodic breathing (less than 10 or 15 percent) is not a big deal. We all have some episodes (some folks more frequently than others) of periodic breathing. Even if your unit and software flag it, it may still not be a big issue, since as Pugsy notes, not all events are in fact periodic breathing (it often produces "false positives"). At 3%, I would not worry. If it's above the 10% mark, it might be time to chat with your doctor about it.

Using my old APAP therapy, on a bad night my PBs would sometimes hit 3.0 to 5.0% (rare) ... it scared the daylights out of me sometimes. Next morning my diaphragm would feel like someone played soccer on it during the night, plus my head would feel like it was full of cotton balls and soda pop. It didn't happen a lot, but I hated those nights more than any other kind.

I think it depends how it affects you, but I suggest if it gets too high for your personal comfort, go talk to your sleep doctor.