The Sleep Study Test Results Are Back . . . And They're Not Good

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Apparently I hadn't had a sleep study test done in 10 years. I was inquiring about a "dental device" for sleep apnea as opposed to using a CPAP, so they let me do a home sleep study. The results are that I had SEVERE Obstructive Sleep Apnea and must continue using the CPAP device. A dental device would not work for me. Let me share some numbers with you from my test results. I'll tell you what the norm or goal is and what my results were for comparison. So let's define some things first. HYPOPNEA: a breathing event characterized by shallow breathing that lasts for at least 10 seconds. APNEA: a breathing event where you stop breathing Normal or goal range index figure for Apnea-Hypopnea is supposed to be less than 5. Mine was 49. That's the index number. It's a calculated score. I actually quit breathing or breathed shallowly for 10 or more seconds 449 times throughout the night. Yeah, that's bad. I woke up 23 times during the night. I snore for about an hour per night. The test results show some figures about oxygen saturation and amount of REM sleep, etc. but I'm still researching what all of that means. My oxygen saturation was 96%. I already knew I had a slow heart rate, and apparently it's about 37 beats per minute while I sleep. That is pretty low. These are the norms for the various sleep stages/sleep cycles and my results. Light Sleep: 50-60% of total sleep time. (mine was 84%) Deep Sleep: 15-25% of total sleep time. (mine was 4%) REM Sleep: 20-25% of total sleep time. (mine was 12%) So yeah, I see that I'm not sleeping well.