Sleep Apnea, CPAP and Zeo

published by yeunganson on Sat, 06/30/2012 - 14:24
English

I'm 30 year Chinese old male around 160 pounds - BMI of 23.5 (acceptable in North America, but overweight in Asian standard).

So I was diagnoised with Moderate Obstrctive Sleep Apena with an estimated 16 Apena Hypopnea Index events per hour. I was getting a CPAP machine when I read about Zeo on Smartmoney magazine.

So I decided to try the Zeo a month before getting my CPAP machine so I have a better before/after observation. I have about a month of data before using CPAP and about 2 weeks of data (and growing) after using the CPAP.

The baseline in a 8 hour sleep, I get about

1 hr of Deep Sleep
2.5 - 3 hr of REM Sleep
the rest is just light sleep

I was trying to get more deep sleep out of it.

Here are some observations.

REM Sleep remains stable BEFORE and AFTER using CPAP. I get 2 - 3 hours of REM each night. If I sleep only 6 hours, the portion that gets killed off is the REM sleep regardless of using CPAP or not. So 6 hours of sleep, I get about 1.5 hours of REM. 8 hours of sleep I get between 2.5 - 3 hours of REM. 11 hours of sleep gets only 3.5 hours of REM so longer sleeping time doesn't give me better bang for REM sleep. I tried sleeping pills BEFORE CPAP for a 2 nights for kicks, and REM has little impact.

Deep Sleep does show some variable. I was getting peaks and valleys. Before CPAP, I get sometimes 1 hour and sometimes 30 minutes and worst was 8 hours sleep with 18 minutes of Deep Sleep. After CPAP, The valleys are taken out. I am consistantly getting between 45 minutes  and 1 hour and 10 minutes of Deep Sleep every night.  

I tried to take a dose of sleeping pills (melatoni) before the CPAP unit for experiment. Wikipedia said it should increase the amount of REM sleep. However, among the few nights I have tried a dose of sleeping pill (melatonin) actually DECREASED the amount of deep sleep to about 30 minutes while my REM sleep remains in the usual range and the length of total sleeping hours increased.

I have yet to find a way to get more deep sleep. I read threads in this forum that people getting 2 - 3 hours of deep sleep while I am only getting 1 hour. Seems like I am missing out.

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Excerpts: 
An experiment of Zeo before and after CPAP treatment

yeunganson

Sat, 06/30/2012 - 14:26

Just a personal experiment to see if there are any impact of a CPAP machine using Zeo as a tool.

Tod Merley

Fri, 07/06/2012 - 22:40

Greetings yeunganson,

The thing I have found most associated with deep sleep while using Zeo (and CPAP) is exercise.  In particular walking long distances (4 miles or so) with some of it at aerobic levels of heart rate.

Sleep apnea is not only a matter of apneas and hypotneas but also over breathing.  The system becomes hyper-ventilated very easily.  When you add a CPAP to that the constant pressure makes it easier to breath in and so to breath more and makes the situation worse.  To overcome this I purchased a cheap pulse oximiter which I keep on my belt.  It helps me to find the point where my breathing level brings about he lowest heart rate while keeping exercion constant.  Since it takes some concentration to quiet my breathing enough to bring down my SpO2 level a single percent (blood oxygen saturation level in percent) the oximeter part becomes sort of a reference for when I am close.  Typing at my computer I like to see about 95% SpO2 for the lowest heart rates - while climbing a hill perhaps 96%.   It is good to practice while using the CPAP while awake and while going to sleep.

The pulse oximeter is also useful for interval training useing hills while asending natural hills while walking.  I thing the interval training is also good for controling the over breathing and so likely for more deep sleep.

May we find happy dreams!

Tod