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Central Apnea


Posted by Jeff Porterfiel on February02, 2000 at 07:47:27:

Just a word of caution during the sleep study. Don't do anything unusual that could screw up the test, such as meditation or other mental relaxtion techniques. I did and got diagnosed with Central Apnea.

Besides being restless from the 'fishbowl' effect (wires attached, camera, etc.) and the strange room and bed, I was trying to fall asleep on my back as instructed by the technician, since most of my problems occur when I am this position. I almost always fall asleep on my side, mostly the right side, so I was having an extremely difficult time relaxing enough to fall asleep. In trying to relax, I used a technique that has often helped in situations like this. Basically it involves focusing my thoughts on my heart rate, and breathing. By slowing my breathing to 8 beats in and 8 beat out, I can usually relax myselft enough to sleep. Unfortunately, during the sleep test, I learned that it does other things, many of which I suspected, but did not recognize them as a problem. First off, the slower breathing rate causes my breathing to be very slow (between 3 to 4 breaths per minute (bad)), my heart rate slows into the 50's (bad), my blood oxygen is lowered (bad) and my eeg indicates that I am in Stage 1 sleep. My Dr. insists that no one can conciously control their breathing while in Stage 1 sleep, and therefore I must have CSA. I even went to a another Dr for a second opinion. He refused to conduct an independent study. He just reviewed the results of the first test. While I know that I was concious and in control during the time that I was meditating, there is no way to convince a Dr. (or even two of them) that such a technique exists and works.

Please do not misunderstand me. I am not saying that CSA does not exist. If you think you may symptoms of CSA and you are not intentionally doing anything that causes them, by all means, pursue the diagnosis.

I just wish I had known about CSA before I went into my sleep study and unintentionally screwed it up. Now I will probably have to wait to get a fresh look at this

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