Too Many Sleep Stage Shifts

published by Gary Willard on Mon, 10/18/2010 - 12:07
English

I think I have some kind of sleep disorder. I had Apnea (AHI 26) and had MMA surgery two years ago that lowered AHI to 10. According to ZEO data, I have numerous stage shifts per night, 30 or more with many stages in the 5-10 minute range. There doesn't seem to be an pattern to my sleep stages, randomly in and out of REM, deep, light, etc. An in hospital sleep study indicated 126 stage shifts in 6 hours (post surgery). A 45 minute stage is very long for me. My ZQ is at the high end of the range for my age but I feel treable all the time. Are the numerous stage shifts a problem? Any ideas what’s wrong or how to pursue a remedy?

Derek@Zeo's picture

Derek@Zeo

Fri, 11/12/2010 - 04:58

Hi sleepy – we posed this question to our experts for an expert answer. Here's what we heard back from them…

 

Q: Are numerous sleep phase shifts a problem? What could it mean, and how can I pursue a remedy?

This brings up a good point. We know that how much sleep we get is important. Many of us acknowledge that the distributions of different sleep phases (how much Deep, REM, or Light sleep we get) is important. But another factor is the transitions between sleep phases and wakefulness over the course of the night. Lots of sleep phase shifts during the night can leave us feeling like we never got a full, restful sleep.

Many things could cause lots of sleep phase shifts over the night. Apnea is certainly a clear example. Disruptions in breathing can cause phase shifts and cause wakefulness, even over very short periods of time. In addition, snoring or breathing events that wouldn’t necessarily qualify as apneas or hypopneas could disrupt sleep.

But sleep apnea isn’t the only possible disruptor. The sleep environment, such as light and noise, substances we use during the day, particularly caffeine and alcohol, and other sleep or medical disorders could all be to blame for numerous sleep phase shifts.

Sometimes, apnea and other issues could be combining to cause the issue. Talking to a doctor about apnea, and these other issues, and working to identify the root causes – and taking care of all of them – is the surest way to get into a good sleeping pattern.