I'm 51 years old, normal weight, took Ambien before my sleep study (which the doctor approved).  I only snore occasionally (according to my husband), but snored throughout my study apparently.

Here are the results I got:
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Initial sleep latency was markedly reduced at 1 minute.  Initial REM latency was reduced at 40.5 minutes.  The proportions of total sleep time spent in the various sleep stages were abnormal in that stage I was increased to 14.8%, slow wave sleep was reduced to 3.9% and stage REM was slightly increased to 289.6%.  Sleep efficiency was slightly reduced at 90.1%.  

Respiratory profile: Apnea/hypopnea index by AASM criteria was moderately severely elevated at 24.8 and by CMS criteria moderately severely elevated at 17.2.  There were 61 obstructive apnea, two central apneas, one mixed apnea, 32 hypopneas with 4% desaturation and 42 hypopneas with arousal.  There were no respiratory effort related arousals and respiratory disturbanc index was 24.8.  Respiratory events did not vary significantly in frequency by sleep stage.  Respiratory events were more common in the supine compared to the non-supine position (RDI 42.5 versus 10.9).  Snoring was noted throughout.

Pulse oximetry: Baseline awake supine saturation waas low normal at 92%.  mean saturation during non-REM sleep was 91.2% and during REM sleep 92.2%.  Nadir saturation was 74% and ocurred in both non-REM and REM sleep.
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I don't understand any of that and would appreciate any interpretations you guys can give.  I'm returning in a few weeks for nasal CPAP titration after a CPAP desensitization.  
Thanks!

In English!

You first got to sleep one minute in, which is very very fast. You also got into REM (dreaming) stage sleep pretty fast -- only took you 40 minutes. You didn't spend the same amount of time in the various stages of sleep as most people do -- you dreamt more, and you spent more time in that stage 1 sleep which is light and tentative, really just dozing. 90.1% of the time you were in bed you spent sleeping, which is a bit inefficient of you, try to work on that. ;)

(I don't know the difference in those two indexing schemes, but I'm sure someone does. Those index numbers mean your troubles are pretty bad, but not the worst ever.)

61 times you stopped breathing because something in your airway physically closed up. Twice your brain just forgot to tell you to breathe. One time you stopped breathing and it was a combination of a physical obstruction and your brain not sending the right signals.

32 times you breathed, except not deeply enough to do you as much good as one would hope, and you didn't have enough oxygen in your blood. 42 times you breathed shallowly and it made you sort of start to wake up. You didn't sort of start to wake up just because it was difficult to breathe in without having a hypopnea (shallow breath) or apnea (no breath).

Your problems don't vary based on how deeply you are asleep. It's worse when you're on your back. You snore. Zzzzz.

They also measured the percentage of oxygen in your blood with that thingy they stuck on your finger. Anything under 94% is not so good. Under 90% is bad. When you are awake and lying on your back, you're at 92. The average while you were sleeping was 91 or 92 percent, but there were times when you got down to 74%. 74% is downright scary.

thanks, Andreamer!
What does the term "nadir saturation" mean?  
How can stage REM be "slightly increased to 289.6%"?  Shouldn't a percentage be lower than 100?
Falling asleep that fast is unusual for me - I credit the ambien for that - and I did feel like I slept pretty well while I was there.   Maybe it was getting away from my husband and kids...
In general, I am aware of sleeping lightly and waking up many times during the night.  I hope the CPAP can help me with this.

Had a split PSG last week, got written results today - see dr. next week, but wanted to get your collective interpretation. Here are the what I think are the highlights:

Diagnostic portion: slept 2 hrs, 28 min, poor sleep efficiency
Sleep onset latency, 25 min.
Increased proportion of stage 1 no REM sleep, w/o REM sleep observed

Obstructive apneas assoc. w/hypopneic episodes, apnea-hypopnea index of 28 resp. events per sleep hr. with loud snoring

Sleep disturbed 36 times per sleep hr
Moderate oxygen desaturations

Had CPAP in the lab titrated to 11 cm of water pressure

88 min. of sleep observed w/REM sleep

Sleep disordered breathting improved w/CPAP

SLEEP SUMMARY

Stage 1, % TST 55
State 2, %  TST, 21
State 3,4, % TST 24
REM % TST ---

Arousals, count 88, index 35.8

sleep efficiency 77%


RESPIRATION SUMMARY

will just do supine, that was most

obstructive, 14
centeral, 0
mixed, 2
hypopnea, 47


SaO2, NREM Mean 89.0


SLEEP SUMMARY with CPAP

Much better :)

THANKS for any insights...:)


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But Perry, it's a dry heat said Della Street

Jill, nadir saturation means the lowest oxygen saturation you got to. So you got as low as 74%, which is very bad.

Yeah, I have no idea how you could have gotten greater than 100% of your sleep in REM. Perhaps that was meant to be 28.96%? Someone probably made a typo.

You should post your own thread so that you'll get answers specifically to your questions.  No buttin' in!  

Della, the diagnostic portion of your sleep study shows that you need the CPAP device to control yout breathing while asleep. You either stopped breathing or had your breathing restricted 28 times per hour. You had your sleep disrupted 36 times per hour. Of interest is that you did not reach REM Sleep either on the diagnostic nor the CPAP titration portion of your study. This COULD mean that your sleep breathing on a normal night is worse than it was in the sleep lab, and also that the pressure that you were titrated to will be too low. Usually people with a sleep related breathing disorder find that it is worse during REM sleep. Therfore the CPAP pressure is usually increased during this sleep period. Your experiences are exactly why I personally do NOT like split nights, it is much better to have a full nights diagnostic study followed by a full nights titration. I usually will have patients booked back to back nights for this.


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Iain Boyle MS, MLT(CSMLS), RPSGT

Thanks Iain - I will move my questions to a different thread - sorry - I thought we could post similar questions under a similar topic name so we don't end up w/ jillions of individual threads... I see dr on Monday, so will let you know how it goes...thanks again - appreciate your input very much


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But Perry, it's a dry heat said Della Street