Is my breathing pattern normal?

[retlif]

Hey all! I was zooming into my breathe in Sleepyhead and noticed a change in breathe pattern just before falling asleep and after I have fallen asleep. I scrolled back to the day I started CPAP and this pattern is there as well.
I have been using CPAP for 2 months or so now. My AHI trends in the treated zone. Doc has reviewed the stats and he is satisfied with the treatment plan.

This is the chart just before I fall asleep/just fallen asleep. The each breathe looks like the textbook rounded peaks and valleys. 
[attachment=6479]

This is the chart when I am way deep asleep. It appears that there is a dwell in inhalation for 1 sec. As if I took a breathe, hold my breathe and then continue to breath in. 
[attachment=6480][attachment=6481]
Any idea if this is normal or something that I should raise to the doctor? 
Thanks!

Where I am from, scheduling a appointment to see a sleep specialist take a couple of weeks and then hours of queuing. So I'll try here first. 

[gwc2795]

http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...Rate_graph

[Walla Walla]

Looks OK to me. There's normally a slight pause between exhale and inhale while sleeping.

[Sleeprider]

This is the chart when I am way deep asleep. It appears that there is a dwell in inhalation for 1 sec. As if I took a breathe, hold my breathe and then continue to breath in. 

This is a very good question on how to read a flow rate chart.  You did a great job of formatting and included the zero dashed line.  Everything above that line is inspiration (I) and everything below is expiration (E).  This is a good example of normal I:E where in inspiration time is shorter than expiration.  Normal breathing in this case, the inspiration quickly gains in flow rate (volume in mL/sec) and reaches a peak at which time the flow rapidly slows to zero, then expiration seamlessly beings. The expiration cycle is passive, meaning your chest simply relaxes and gravity does most of the work of collapsing the chest and causing air in the lungs to flow out. Expiration results in a fast flow rate at first which gradually slows to near zero resulting in the flattened line near zero flow. This is not holding your breath, but is the result of a relaxed normal exhale, as compared to a forced exhale.  Take a look at your figure with the transitions from I to E marked.  We can look at the transitions in the time scale (x-axis) and see that inspiration is approximately one breath every 5-seconds (12 BPM) with inspiration being about 2.2 seconds and expiration being 2.8 seconds.  Notie the green line bisecting the graph during expiration below and showing -3.43 mL/sec flow. This shows the exact place where your cursor was located is indeed in expiration and there is expiratory flow. This would be textbook normal.

An interesting note here is that many of the machines will mistake the transition and count part of expiration as inhale, resulting in an incorrect I:E time or ratio. In the case of your overall statistics, we see a 14 BPM resp rate with Insp time of 1.88 and exp time of 2.10 which is both normal and correct.

[Greenbean]

" You did a great job of formatting and included the zero dashed line."
How do you format for the zero dashline? I've looked in preferences and view and don't see an option.

[Walla Walla]

Go to the left side of the flow chart and right click on it. Than click on Dotted lines. Put a check in the zero box.

[jaswilliams]

Go to the flow graph right click on the left hand title and select dotted lines and tick zero

[Greenbean]

Worked - Thanks!

[retlif]

Thanks Walla Walla, gwc2795 & especially to Sleeprider for the detailed explanation.
It makes sense to me now. I assumed the inspiration starts at the bottom-most part of the expiration.

[Sleeprider]

I like what GWC2795 did here linking to the Beginner's Guide to Sleepyhead. I have added the graphic and explaination from this thread to the wiki. http://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php...Rate_graph

This was a good question and I think a lot of people will benefit from a better understanding of the flow rate graph.