Movement and spO2 drops

[newtothis123]

So I wear a Wellue at night to measure my heart rate and oxygen.

I’ll typically have 5~ large (4-5%) spO2 drops that last anywhere from 10-30 seconds each night.

They correlate with a heart rate spike and also movement.

I know that apnea events can cause the heart rate spike and oxygen drop. But what above the movement?

Any ideas? Thanks.

[Old Mike]

Regardless of the cause, a few drops of that magnitude throughout the whole night is well within what would be considered normal. It's possible and indeed likely that drops of that magnitude and duration could simply be due to waking up (but not remembering) and turning in bed. We all tend to hold our breath briefly while turning in bed. The spike in heart rate is more likely to be caused by physical movement rather than apnea. I had 7 drops of greater than 4% last night (over about eight hours) which correlates well with my measured AHI of 1.4. I have moderate sleep apnea (AHI was 23 in my sleep study) and use an APAP machine. So my logic is that if you only had five drops with no APAP/CPAP treatment, then you definitely don't have sleep apnea.

[newtothis123]

Thanks for info. Here’s my OSCAR from last night. How does it look?

Do note there are events that are from me getting up and also duplicate events. For instance the zoomed screen shot flagged as three separate events in OSCAR for some reason.

Thanks!

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And here's the largest drop

[Old Mike]

I'm not sure what you're trying to find out. But I can't see anything that suggests sleep apnea here. A handful of short drops into the low 90's or even high 80's is nothing to worry about. Put the ring on while sitting on the sofa and hold your breath for thirty seconds and see what happens. My guess is you'll drop to low 90's for 10-15 seconds and will recover quickly once your start breathing again. Then remember that every time we do anything remotely difficult, most of us hold our breath. Just to put things in context, I was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea and during my sleep study I spent 1 hour and 12 minutes in apnea (out of 6.5 hours of sleep). Hopefully, that reassures you.