New here: Is it Central or Obstructive?

[Brian9923]

Hi everyone, I'll try to keep this succinct!

I'm a man in my late 30s who has been on a multi year journey working with various specialists trying to find out why I'm often tired, dazed, or low energy during the day.  Sleep only feels restorative if I get a lot - like 9 or 10 hours.  This has been going on for many years, I think I was unaware it might possibly be fixable until recently.  I was able to start down the road of sleep study and so far my results seem a little bit strange or contradictory maybe.  I'm hoping you all can help me find some clarity or direction in this.

The first test was an at-home test using a basic loaner machine. The results as given to me over the phone were (these are my notes from the conversation):
- "Mostly normal" with an AHI value of 2
- Oxygen was 91.4 at its lowest, and usually mid to upper 90s
- Less than 2% 'snore' 
- 57bpm with little variability
- "Possible" central apnea.  Quote "no obstruction in breathing but pause in breathing for 10 seconds."

The possible central apnea prompted a second, more advanced test at an actual sleep facility.  During this test I didn't feel like I actually slept - I was conscious the whole time - but both the lab tech and the Dr who interpreted the results later said that they had sufficiently useful data.

The second test results interpretation:
- In 150 minutes of light sleep I had 17 obstructive apnea events, averaging 24 seconds (the longest was 34 seconds)
- AHI score was 6.6 on my side, 10.5 on my back

Does anyone know why these reports might seem a little contradictory to the layperson?  I know I got a terrible night's sleep during the second test because I never entered what I would consider sleep.  I came close.  It's very, very rare for me not to feel like I've slept during the night - my issue is I sleep but I just don't feel restored in the morning. 

How could I be conscious and not be aware that I've stopped breathing?  Is it possible the in-lab sleep test wasn't sensitive enough to detect very light or slow breathing and it registered as no breathing?  Could that be why it registered so many apnea events that I couldn't notice in a relatively conscious state?  My RHR is usually in the 50s.  I used to be a bit of a runner.  

In preparation for going in for a consultation for a dental apparatus for obstructive apnea, I've been using a snoring app on my phone that records and notes any sounds during the night.  It confirms that I very rarely snore at all most nights, and the rare occasion that it does happen it's pretty light and brief.  There are some noises very occasionally that might be gasps but it's hard to tell - they're not loud or clear.  I do occasionally exhale sharply and audibly.

I'm otherwise normally healthy as far as I've been able to determine.  I'm at a healthy weight and am reasonably active though not superbly athletic.  Three years ago I was found to be deficient in CoQ10 and I've been supplementing since then, though I have not noticed any effects one way or another.  

Thanks in advance for any help or insights!  I'm hopeful one day I can crack the mystery and feel normal during the days.

[Gideon]

I have seen to many sleep studies that contradict with themselves. Post FULL copies of your sleep studies, including the charts and tables and I and others will be happy to speak to them.

There is a young lady who has just joined us here on AB whose sleep study diagnosis is severe OSA, with 72% of her apnea being central based. Overall these have been more accurate lately but to properly understand them we need to see the full study.