Length of Individual Apnea Events Is Increased by Supine Position and Modulated by Severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea

Figure 1

(a) Positional sleeping time adjusted distributions of the durations of individual apnea events in supine and nonsupine positions in different OSA severity categories and (b) distributions in nonsupine and supine positions as a function of OSA severity. In all OSA severity categories the apnea events are longer in supine position than in the nonsupine position. Based on mixed model analysis, the differences are statistically significant in all OSA severity categories. Also the median durations of apnea events increase along increasing OSA severity in both supine and nonsupine positions.

(a)

(b)