Low o2 At Night

[Goozie]

Hi All, I will try to make a long story short. I am just here looking for opinions, suggestions, or answers. In Nov. I was admitted to the hospital for pneumonia and a UTI....the day I was discharged I was told my 02 was dropping into the low 70's at nite. I was sent home with a concenstrator to us naselly with 2 liters of 02 until I could see the sleep and lung doc. What brought me to all this was, I was during something really weird things at nite....like getting in my truck to drive to my friends house thinking it was 6a.m. instead I found out it was only midnite...That was not the only time I was doing things at nite and would find things moved around in the morning...etc. I went for my sleep test... I passed for Apnea....So I sent the 02 back....now I am starting to do weird things again.  The lung & sleep doc did'nt seem to think that 70%  was to low at nite...but my family doc said it was way to low.  Now I am waiting to do more tests...cat scan, plum test of some sort. I did really well with the oxygen at nite...but with insurance and the doc saying I did'nt need it...well I had to give it up. My main question is...when your oxy level is very low at nite...do you do weird things? This has me scared to death that I will get back in my truck and take off again without knowing it. It will be a few weeks until I see the lung & sleep doc....any suggestions what I can do untlil then about these unusual . This is the first I have did any research on sleep disorders and this is the first site I have come to. Can anyone put my mind at east that I am not loosing it. Thank you    Goozie

[Goozie]

I appreciate all the replies about my o2 dropping at nite. I have to get a chest x-ray on the 25th  and have an appt with the doc on April 1st. He is my second opinion. I am going to write down the name of this condition to show him. I was on o2 just at nite...but they stopped it...I felt better...if I have this condition should I go  back on it?
                                       Thank you,
                                        Goozie

[National Jewish Health]

What you describe is a disorder, said to afflict up to 4% of the general population.  It is called somnambulism, which falls in the category of disorders of arousal that also includes confusional arousals and sleep terrors.  It is sometimes accompanied by violent behavior.  In addition, driving while in any degree of a sleep state, is very likely to cause serious injury to yourself and others.

Somnambulism is highly likely to be influenced by a lack of oxygen.  In assessing the severity of low oxygen saturations it is necessary to take into account both the degree of desaturation and the duration of it, both the duration of each episode or fall in oxygen during sleep as well as the total duration of low oxygen saturation, as a fraction of the number of hours spent asleep.  By any standard, however, a saturation of 70% is worrisome and desaturation of this degree is seldom if ever seen, even transiently, in individuals who have no sleep disturbance.

I suggest that you request a second opinion from another independent sleep doctor for examination and review of your sleep study and, in the meantime, that you entrust your truck keys to another person so that it will be physically impossible for you to drive while impaired.

Good luck.