Respiratory Rate Concern

[UniversePoet]

My respiratory rate seems rather concerning. Anyone else get numbers like these?

https://postimg.org/image/i8z3imxhh/

[palerider]

My respiratory rate seems rather concerning.

why?

[UniversePoet]

They are all over the place

[Julie]

You're not a robot, and factors that can influence sleep on any night range from temp, humidity, whether someone in your house smoked a cigarette 2 hrs ago, if you walked an extra 15' at 3 pm, a noise outside startled you for a second in your sleep, etc. etc. Don't focus on any one feature at any time unless it definitely takes some position (away from normal) for a long time and stays there. And you feel bad and AHI is different. Relax!

[palerider]

They are all over the place

So?

[UniversePoet]

Now I'm worried I have some sort of neurological issue because of the crazy breathing pattern.

[LSAT]

The way I read your chart is that 95% of the time you were at 16.6 or below...perfectly normal. One breath every 3.5-4.0 seconds. Normal RR for an adult is 12-16. Do your own research. It will give you something to do besides worry.

[Pugsy]

SleepyHead's respiratory rate numbers have been known to be inaccurate due to duplicate counting because of a little hiccup in the flow rate.

Zoom in on the flow rate and manually count the respirations and see if it is really that high.

[palerider]

Now I'm worried I have some sort of neurological issue because of the crazy breathing pattern.

"crazy breathing pattern"

You mean because it's not the same every night?

Sleep varies, from hour to hour, and night to night, it's not precise...

largely because of the squishy meatbag that's on the end of the hose.

[yourbrokenoven]

The normal respiratory rate is generally around 14 - 22 breaths a minute. Keep in mind that it's normal to breathe faster with physical activity and slower when sleeping.

That being said, I feel like I'm waking with some tachypnea (fast breathing rate) myself. When you brought up this subject, I checked my sleepyhead data and saw similar breathing rates anywhere between 25 and 30 breaths a minute with a few spikes into the 50 breaths/min range. I'm not sure why this would happen, honestly, but I definitely breathe more shallowly despite my pressure being 14/10. The machine just doesn't let me exhale fully. The doctors don't seem to think it's a problem, however, I feel that this is the one complaint that I've had from day one over almost 4 years is that I would sleep better if I could exhale. My pressures were lowered recently and are more comfortable now, however, I'm still sleeping way worse than before I was diagnosed with sleep apnea.

[LSAT]

The normal respiratory rate is generally around 14 - 22 breaths a minute. Keep in mind that it's normal to breathe faster with physical activity and slower when sleeping.

That being said, I feel like I'm waking with some tachypnea (fast breathing rate) myself. When you brought up this subject, I checked my sleepyhead data and saw similar breathing rates anywhere between 25 and 30 breaths a minute with a few spikes into the 50 breaths/min range. I'm not sure why this would happen, honestly, but I definitely breathe more shallowly despite my pressure being 14/10. The machine just doesn't let me exhale fully. The doctors don't seem to think it's a problem, however, I feel that this is the one complaint that I've had from day one over almost 4 years is that I would sleep better if I could exhale. My pressures were lowered recently and are more comfortable now, however, I'm still sleeping way worse than before I was diagnosed with sleep apnea.

Are you using the EPR feature on your machine? EPR=Exhale Pressure Relief

[UniversePoet]

Does the Dreammachine have a EPR feature? I'm so new to all of this.

[Pugsy]

The DreamStation has what is called Flex exhale relief.
It's the equivalent of EPR Exhale Pressure Relief which is what it is called on a ResMed machine.
So you do have some exhale relief available.
I suggest that you go here and request the clinical manual for your machine. It explains in better detail the features of your machine.
https://www.apneaboard.com/adjust-cpap- ... tup-manual

[UniversePoet]

Thank you for the help

[yourbrokenoven]

Are you using the EPR feature on your machine? EPR=Exhale Pressure Relief

Don't know. I have a BiPAP. Resmed VPAP S. I don't think it has any fancy settings. It won't show me anything useful unless I put the data into sleepyhead.