Posted by Bird Watcher on February 27, 2006 at 20:30:18:

In Reply to: Hypopneas? posted by lucieintheskye on February 27, 2006 at 19:52:20:

When discussing sleep breathing disorders, a hypopnea is defined as being a 50-75% reduction in ventilation for 10 seconds or more. Yet, hypopnea isn't necessarily a disorder or a disease, just as an apnea (which is 75% or more reduction for 10 seconds) isn't in it's self a disorder unless there are a certain number of them per hour. Practicably everyone has 1-3 apneas or hypopneas per night, and even 1-3 an hour is considered within normal limits.

Sleep breathing disorders are disruptive to health and energy when the apneas and hypopneas cause brain arrousals from deeper stages of sleep. The more of these events you have, the less quality sleep you get. Also in more severe cases, the hypopneas and apneas string together and can cause oxygen desaturation in the blood. A blood oxygen level that drops to less than 90% is considered a problem in this area.

It may very well be that you are now having a more significant amount of apneas and hypopneas than the previous test. These events could be causing more and more brain arrousals and it is affecting your energy the next day. It would probably a good idea to contact your doctor again and ask for another sleep test. When you get closer to the test date, you may want to discuss with your doctor ways that you can try to get better sleep during the test. This may include getting a low dose of a sleep medication before the test.

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