Pulse ox vs Sleep study
Greetings all,
I am currently having several ongoing issues, occasional racing heartbeats, tremors, headaches, weird dreams, snoring, wife swears I stop breathing at times and I’ve even woke up a few times short of breath and now my palette is weakening. I know all of these things can be symptoms of sleep apnea but I have had two over night pulse ox tests from my doctor but they both came back in the 90’s
My question is this:
Is it possible to have SA and have a good pulse ox? Should I request a sleep study to be sure? Are they more accurate?
Thanks for any info, I’d love to figure out all the issues I’ve been having.
RE: Pulse ox vs Sleep study
HI RocketKing -
The short answer is, "yes". My initial sleep test returned an AHI of 93 and my lowest SpO2 level was 94%. A low SpO2 level is just one indicator.
08-25-2019, 09:09 PM
(This post was last modified: 08-25-2019, 09:23 PM by alexp.)
RE: Pulse ox vs Sleep study
(08-25-2019, 08:04 PM)RocketKing Wrote: Greetings all,
I am currently having several ongoing issues, occasional racing heartbeats, tremors, headaches, weird dreams, snoring, wife swears I stop breathing at times and I’ve even woke up a few times short of breath and now my palette is weakening. I know all of these things can be symptoms of sleep apnea but I have had two over night pulse ox tests from my doctor but they both came back in the 90’s
My question is this:
Is it possible to have SA and have a good pulse ox? Should I request a sleep study to be sure? Are they more accurate?
Thanks for any info, I’d love to figure out all the issues I’ve been having.
Doesn't mean anything. I never went under 90% because most of my events were hypopneas and not full apneas. A drop of 3% is enough to count as an event. If your normal sleep level is 95%, you'll still be over 90% after a 3% drop like I was.
If you are waking up short of breath in the middle of the night, I would definitely get a sleep study done. That's a red flag for sleep apnea. They will be able to tell you if you are trying to breath but no air is coming in. The worst that can happen is that you don't have it (which isn't that bad
). But having sleep apnea and not treating it, should not be an option. Sleep apnea can lead to some serious health issues if you don't take care of it so better be safe than sorry.
RE: Pulse ox vs Sleep study
What the others said. Some people, their blood O2 drops like a rock during or after an event. Other people, it doesn't drop much at all.
A sleep study is your best option.
Either that or arranging the loan of an auto-PAP and letting it titrate you. If, after a week or so, it detects nothing, then there you go.
PaulaO
Take a deep breath and count to zen.
RE: Pulse ox vs Sleep study
(08-25-2019, 09:38 PM)PaulaO2 Wrote: What the others said. Some people, their blood O2 drops like a rock during or after an event. Other people, it doesn't drop much at all.
A sleep study is your best option.
Either that or arranging the loan of an auto-PAP and letting it titrate you. If, after a week or so, it detects nothing, then there you go.
Thank you for all the help, can you give me more information on where I could find a machine and what kind?
