Regarding Pulse Ox and heart rate.

Most nights I feel like I am sleeping well, but like clockwork, i have a night or two a week where I have a lot of symptoms especially while falling asleep.

Last night was one of them. Each time I was about to drift off, I would awaken feeling like I had stopped breathing. This happened for about 2 hours. Once I fell asleep, around 1 am, I slept soundly until 8.

At that two hour point I checked my AHI, and it read 2. when I woke this morning, it was around 1. I know these numbers are good.

I also used my pulse ox overnight. I didn't have time to read the computer graph this morning, but I checked it during that 2 hour time period whenever I would waken. I saw my pulse in the 40's and my O2 in the low 90s.

My question is regarding my slow heart rate. Is it possible that the events I was having(probably hypopneas) would cause I dip in heart rate? Should I worry about that low heart rate? I was also told I had bradycardia in my sleep study.

icipher wrote: Each time I was about to drift off, I would awaken feeling like I had stopped breathing. .

I never paid much attention to my breathing before being diagnosed with OSA, but since then I also notice that I stop breathing just before drifting off. I think this is somewhat normal, and is probably the reason many people register Central Apneas during the periods of falling asleep and waking up.

icipher wrote:At that two hour point I checked my AHI, and it read 2. when I woke this morning, it was around 1. I know these numbers are good.

You should use SleepyHead to look at your results and you will be able to see the breakdown between OA's, CA's and Hypopneas. I expect your AHI would be even lower if you discounted the false CA's during your drifting off period.

icipher wrote:I saw my pulse in the 40's and my O2 in the low 90s. My question is regarding my slow heart rate. Is it possible that the events I was having(probably hypopneas) would cause I dip in heart rate? Should I worry about that low heart rate? I was also told I had bradycardia in my sleep study.

According to Wikipedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bradycardia , "During sleep, a slow heartbeat with rates around 40–50 BPM is usual, and is considered normal" so you can probably stop worrying about that. Perhaps someone else can comment on your O2 levels, but I don't think those levels are a problem, particularly if those were your lowest over the entire night and only lasted a few minutes at a time.

Your 02 looks normal, especially if you're at least a somewhat active person and not unduly old.

Yes. I have looked at Encore and my AHI is usually all hypopnea. Rarely I will have a central apnea.

I am trying to determine how much i should be concerned with my heart rate lowering as my o2 desats. I am only 30, and I am pretty active.

Younger athletic people normally have low rates - it's a good thing in your case.