Posted by alan on August 22, 2010 at 06:45:18:

I bought an oximeter to look at my blood oxygen levels during sleep - more out of curiosity than for self-diagnosis. I set it up with a recording interval of 2 seconds. But when I hold my breath for 40 seconds, the reading on the display doesn't change - it stays within the 97 to 98 range.

I wrote to the company, and they said "the average person's oxygen saturation takes about 3-4 minutes to change when they have oxygen depravation."

Yet in my sleep studies they always put any oxygen meter on me. So it seems like one of these things has to be true:

(1) With sleep apnea, you can stop breathing for 3-4 minutes.

(2) In the sleep studies, they put the sensor on you for no reason. Or maybe only to detect really severe sleep apnea, where you stop breathing for 3-4 minutes.

(3) The oximeter I bought isn't as sensitive as the ones in the sleep studies.

Any opinions?

Thanks!
Alan

Follow Ups:

• Re: Oximeters Sandman 10:04 8/22/10 (5)
  • Re: Oximeters alan 05:23 8/25/10 (3)
    • Re: Oximeters Sandman 11:12 8/25/10 (2)
      • Re: Oximeters alan 18:36 8/25/10 (1)
        • Re: Oximeters Sandman 19:15 8/25/10 (0)
  • Re: Oximeters westernjoe 07:50 8/23/10 (0)

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