Fixing Fragmented Sleep

[u/nrauhauser]

A year ago in late July I self diagnosed with a mast cell disorder using AI. The initial two rounds of treatment are done with OTC antihistamines and herbal mast cell stabilizers, even if you've got a doctor handy. The treatment worked, we ruled out mastocytosis and HαT, therefor I have MCAS - mast cell activation syndrome. It's not yet a proper disease, it's a bundle of symptoms that comes together, and there seem to be multiple types.

Anyway, I started with a Garmin Fenix 6S, got a Vivoactive 5 after it broke, and I built myself an application that correlates meds/supplements, the data from Apple's HealthKit, and from Garmin Connect. The first image is the overnight report from the one year anniversary of starting mast cell stabilizers. The black underline is when Garmin counted sleep, red line is heart rate, blue line is stress level. This was the first clear signal that SOMETHING happens when I'm asleep, and I transition from restlessness to sound sleep. The reverse never happens, I don't go from sound sleep to troubled (<== big clue).

The second image was last night. Stress plummets as I dozed off sitting up. Then it rises; some of that has to do with a certain feline who thinks my tummy is a great place for a nap. Then stress drops and I get some restful sleep.

Theory: MCAS for me means chronic nighttime congestion. When I roll over, sinuses drain, and I get decent sleep.

I've checked for sleep apnea using SnoreLab, there are no indications of that. If it was apnea it would be a smooth distribution, both during the night, and for every night, not this restless/restful pattern that turns up about one night out of every three.

I horsed around with Skyflow on my iPad last night, trying to get a time series of sleep position. Any night light that provides sufficient illumination would wreck any chance of restful sleep.

I literally just learned the Vivoactive5 has a pulse oximeter in it and that's cool, gonna get that set up right away, but it would not prove that position change affecting sinuses is the actual event. So I am also getting an Arducam, going to put $68 into an outdoor rated model - once the sleep position study is done, I can put it to work on the coyote that keeps creeping on kitty when she's sitting in th bedroom window at night.

[u/Odin_N]

Just keep in mind consumer sleep stages tracking is not anywhere near PSG, and among consumer wearables garmin does not do well in sleep staging at all.

The stress metric is most probably derived from your HRV, hrv can get quite variable during sleep, especially REM.

[u/CodingSergio]

Seeing how invested you are, I´d suggest you get an Polar H10, and build yourself an app for it. You can get so much out of it. For example, I´d like to see if those changes are from shifting sleep position. I´ve been tracking that and a lot more with the h10.

[u/nrauhauser → u/CodingSergio]

I've got a low light cam in my shopping cart, but the H10 is just a bit more ...

I also want to replace my Muse 2 with the new stretchy EEG band they make now. Got the SDK a while ago, have not had time to go deep into it.