[Diagnosis] Looking for advice on my sleep test results

[donder]

Hi everyone, I recently ordered an in-home sleep test. The results say I have mild sleep apnea with evidence of supine-related OSA. I will attach the charts below.

I don't think my sleep is normal. I don't feel rested after a night of sleep and often feel drowsy during the day. Side sleeping reduces my brain fog, but I find it hard to stay in that position for a long time during sleep. Staying in the position wakes me up a couple of times during the night. 

The sleep test provider's Customer Care Team recommended a CPAP, but it seems rather expensive. I heard that CPAP is not helpful if you have mild sleep apnea. A part of me thinks the team is just reaching out to me because they are money grabbers. What do you think? Should I get a CPAP?

   
   
   

[Sleeprider]

Your sleep disordered breathing is firmly in the mild category. Events are a bit hard to interpret from the PAT graphs as they are not differentiated, but there is clustering of the events, mainly during supine sleep. You don't have significant SpO2 desaturation, and your current condition does not appear to have significant risks for your health or heart. One alternative to mitigate this is CPAP, and I would only consider a Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset due to its ability to provide bilevel pressure with up to 3-cm difference between inhale and exhale pressure. Bilevel pressure is what treats flow limitations most effectively, and that is the source of the respiratory disturbances and hypopnea. Another alternative may be to improve your sleeping position and bedding to avoid "positional" airway obstruction from chin-tucking. The use of extra or tall pillows is a big offender in that regard. https://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph...onal_Apnea

The cost of CPAP may be coming down. The Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset card to cloud version has been selling over the past few months for $399 USD from Supplier #1 and Supplier #30 and others. These prices are unlikely to reach UK where the market is less competitive due to most people getting what gets dispensed from NHS and taxes and import fees imposed on the devices elsewhere. It's probably a safe bet, the supplier is not selling you a Resmed or similar high quality device with an ideal algorithm for flow limitation. If you can find a U.S. supplier that will ship to you, the cost could be much lower.

My impression of your study is that CPAP therapy remains an option, but is at most, borderline beneficial. You may get acceptable results out of focusing on sleep position and sleep hygiene, ensuring you provide sufficie 6nt quiet time for adequate good sleep. Your sleep study shows very good sleep architecture with sufficient deep sleep and REM to be satisfying, yet you only totaled 6.5 hours of sleep out of almost 8-hours of test. Whether your sleep patency or duration would improve with CPAP is open to debate, but it seems you might do well pursuing alternative sleep improvements.

[TechieHippie]

You could consider getting an oxygen monitor like the SleepU first, it's a lot cheaper and you don't need replaceable supplies. I monitored my sleep for quite a while and realized most nights were not that bad, but some nights were really bad. I got an inexpensive CPAP and along with other changes it's making a big difference. I could have gotten some improvement through the soft cervical collar (I was already exclusively side sleeping), but my body still finds ways to block the flow or my nose gets congested or whatever, and the CPAP gets me through it just fine. Whereas normally that would have caused me to give up on the changes thinking they weren't working.

If you do decide to get a CPAP, you would be able to find tune your therapy through this forum and so you may get more benefit than other sources might predict. It does look like you had quite a few arousals per hour, if I'm reading that right.

Lisa

[Deborah K.]

He does not need an oxygen monitor as his oxygen levels are fine.

[donder]

Your sleep disordered breathing is firmly in the mild category. Events are a bit hard to interpret from the PAT graphs as they are not differentiated, but there is clustering of the events, mainly during supine sleep.  You don't have significant SpO2 desaturation, and your current condition does not appear to have significant risks for your health or heart. One alternative to mitigate this is CPAP, and I would only consider a Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset due to its ability to provide bilevel pressure with up to 3-cm difference between inhale and exhale pressure.  Bilevel pressure is what treats flow limitations most effectively, and that is the source of the respiratory disturbances and hypopnea. Another alternative may be to improve your sleeping position and bedding to avoid "positional" airway obstruction from chin-tucking.  The use of extra or tall pillows is a big offender in that regard.

The cost of CPAP may be coming down. The Resmed Airsense 10 Autoset card to cloud version has been selling over the past few months for $399 USD from and and others.  These prices are unlikely to reach UK where the market is less competitive due to most people getting what gets dispensed from NHS and taxes and import fees imposed on the devices elsewhere. It's probably a safe bet, the supplier is not selling you a Resmed or similar high quality device with an ideal algorithm for flow limitation. If you can find a U.S. supplier that will ship to you, the cost could be much lower.

My impression of your study is that CPAP therapy remains an option, but is at most, borderline beneficial. You may get acceptable results out of focusing on sleep position and sleep hygiene, ensuring you provide sufficie 6nt quiet time for adequate good sleep.  Your sleep study shows very good sleep architecture with sufficient deep sleep and REM to be satisfying, yet you only totaled 6.5 hours of sleep out of almost 8-hours of test.  Whether your sleep patency or duration would improve with CPAP is open to debate, but it seems you might do well pursuing alternative sleep improvements.

You could consider getting an oxygen monitor like the SleepU first, it's a lot cheaper and you don't need replaceable supplies. I monitored my sleep for quite a while and realized most nights were not that bad, but some nights were really bad. I got an inexpensive CPAP and along with other changes it's making a big difference. I could have gotten some improvement through the soft cervical collar (I was already exclusively side sleeping), but my body still finds ways to block the flow or my nose gets congested or whatever, and the CPAP gets me through it just fine. Whereas normally that would have caused me to give up on the changes thinking they weren't working.

If you do decide to get a CPAP, you would be able to find tune your therapy through this forum and so you may get more benefit than other sources might predict. It does look like you had quite a few arousals per hour, if I'm reading that right.

Lisa

Thanks for the response! I will get a soft cervical collar and see if it helps.