Sleeping In Stanford, Part III

I picked up my sleep test results from the Stanford clinic this morning. While some details of the findings were surprising, the bigger picture they painted wasn't.

My sleep efficiency rating was 90.6%, and the number of apnea (total closure/blockage) events was zero. That sounds good, but there's another type of event called a hypopnea (partial closure/blockage) event - I had 167 of those, or 25.8 per hour, or one every two or three minutes. That's a lot of small interruptions, and it did take a toll. The lowest oxygen saturation level I had that night was eighty-eight percent - and ninety-two or higher is normal.

The upshot of it is - as I suspected - I do have sleep apnea, and it's in the high-moderate range. The CPAP machine still looks like the best option, as it's the least intrusive and the most effective. I'm going to try to lose weight and use the CPAP machine at the same time. A friend of mine lost a lot of weight and his apnea completely disappeared - if that happens, great, but that sounds rare and unlikely. I could stand to lose some weight, regardless of how it affects the apnea. Both goals will help reduce my risk of heart and blood sugar trouble, too!

I'm going to be using a nasal steroid spray to open up my nasal passages for about two weeks, then I'll go in for another overnight sleep exam. This time, we'll be determining what the pressure on my CPAP device should be for maximum effectiveness. I'll get a prescription for the machine, then use it for a while at the approved setting. There'll be a follow-up visit after all that to see how it's all going. More in a couple of weeks...