Respiration rate question,....

I was wondering why so many of my SH charts show a RR between 13 and 16,...up to around 20 at times, when my normal awake resting RR is 9 to 11. I guess I am of the thought process that it would be slower while in a deep sleep than in a resting awake state. Is the normal sleep RR different for a person on a CPAP as compared to a non treated person?

It almost seems as if the machine is forcing me to breathe faster than normal.

Mark55 wrote:I was wondering why so many of my SH charts show a RR between 13 and 16,...up to around 20 at times, when my normal awake resting RR is 9 to 11. I guess I am of the thought process that it would be slower while in a deep sleep than in a resting awake state. Is the normal sleep RR different for a person on a CPAP as compared to a non treated person?

It almost seems as if the machine is forcing me to breathe faster than normal.

Sleep respiration is often a bit faster than awake resting. My NREM (the steady sleep before REM) rate is about 18, REM is ragged, 18 to 24, but waking is about 15. The reduced rate is the easiest way for me to detect a wakeful period.

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rem can get some fast breath rates. Breath rates and tidal volume all over the place, but as long as the o2 is ok, it's not an issue. Generally the nonrem is slower and shallower on my charts. You also need to take into account the tidal volume and minute vent when you look at breath rate. you can't do much with cpap, but the volume and BPM can be helped/adjusted with bpap if needed.

ajack wrote:rem can get some fast breath rates. Breath rates and tidal volume all over the place, but as long as the o2 is ok, it's not an issue. Generally the nonrem is slower and shallower on my charts. You also need to take into account the tidal volume and minute vent when you look at breath rate. you can't do much with cpap, but the volume and BPM can be helped/adjusted with bpap if needed.

One thing I have noticed for certain with the Airsense10 Autoset is it doesn't like very slow respiration. When I am totally relaxed in bed,...say watching tv for a little bit, I will exhale long and slow (which is normal for me), and before I'm 100% done and ready to inhale, the machine starts sending out its pulse wave checking for an apnea which makes me suck in a breath before I really want to. My spo2 levels are perfect awake, so my very relaxed breathing pattern is fine for me.

I wonder how many of these episodes are being flagged as events?

You won't get valid anything trying to interpret awake breathing as if it was asleep breathing... the machine obviously doesn't 'know' you're awake but your pattern is different and it does know that and will react differently to when you're asleep.