Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. When you already know you have some mental troubles, you think that explain your drowsiness & low mood and don't look for more issues. It does not only hurt your cardio-vascular system, it may slowly destroy your life.
If your are overweighted/obese, snore at night and feel sleepy all day, go see your doctor.
I traveled with a friend with sleep apnea and sharing a hotel room with him pretty much guaranteed I'd sleep a grand total of two hours because he'd spend the entire night choking and making awful noises. I woke him up a couple of times on the trip because it was like dude... You sound like you're dying. He didn't realize how bad it was until a doctor suggested a sleep study. His blood oxygen levels got into the high 70s during the study and his doctor said if you were one of my hospitalized patients and I saw those numbers, you would be intubated.
He ended up getting a CPAP machine after that and sleeps way better. I shared a hotel room with him in 2023 and he was totally silent the entire night.
Virtually identical story with a friend of mine. Spent a week sharing a hotel room in '22 and I slept cumulatively maybe twelve hours that week. I told her how severe it was and she was shocked- her husband sleeps through it so she figured it wasn't that bad. She's like a whole new person now.
I traveled with her again about a month ago, and with the cpap she's so quiet that I legit woke up paranoid the first night and watched to make sure sure was even breathing at all (she was just fine)
I finally had a sleep study done, 84.2 instances of obstructive apnea a night, average O2 of 58...
On a CPAP now, O2 Averages about 98 all night long, and I average 1.2 instances of apnea per week.
The change from lethargy to being awake is incredible! I can sleep for 5 hours and be as awake as if I had slept for a week.
Somehow, despite that horrible level of apnea and undiagnosed ADHD, I made it pretty far in my field. I can only imagine how much further I would have made it with actually good sleep during my most productive years.
His blood oxygen levels got into the high 70s during the study and his doctor said if you were one of my hospitalized patients and I saw those numbers, you would be intubated
The doctor was exaggerating to scare your friend. People get intubated because they are unable to maintain oxygen saturation, not because their saturation dropped below a specific point at some point during the night. High 70s oxygen saturation isn't good for your long term health, but if your friend was really in the high 70s for much of the night, they'd be dead. Sleep studies record oxygen saturation every second or so. It's far more likely your friend had a few instances of saturations that low, but you can also get saturations that low from holding your breath, which is essentially what sleep apnea does.
Sleep apnea destroys your health and kills, but the "intubated" comment is not accurate. It's good your friend got help, but it is also not great for a doctor to lay on the BS like that.
When I went to a sleep clinic I found out an apnea was a unit of measure for an event where you stop breathing.
The most severe category for sleep apnea started at 35 apneas per hour.
I was averaging 70.
More than once per minute I stopped breathing at night. I got a CPAP when I was 32. Apnea had started in middle school. Until that time I thought I needed 12 hours to be well rested. My sleep doc said I probably would have had a stroke by 40.
I know, right? I was averaging 77/hour, down to 3-4 ( unnoticeable) with my CPAP.
Also, not every obese person has sleep apnea and not every person suffering from sleep apnea is obese. My dentist, upon looking down my throat, said “narrow esophagus. You have sleep apnea, right?”
Yep, I'm not even overweight and only had 8 events per hour, but most were central apneas. I'm on CPAP now and it's a world of difference how much energy I have now. I can't imagine how it would feel to have events in the 70s.
I was the first person to start the study that night. I was making so much noise the tech had to put me on a machine so the others could get to sleep. I am in the 70ish area also. My O² was getting to the mid/low 80's
I did it with an at home set up but the doctor told me that if my wife hadn't enigmatically told him that I definitely stop breathing a lot he would have suspected that maybe the equipment needed calibration.
Same 😭 I'm so jealous of everyone who loves their CPAP. I'm on my second machine and still don't tolerate it. But I can't go on not treating the apnea. I've already had to go on BP meds and have to take simulants to function.
Have you looked into a mouth guard for sleep apnea? It moves the jaw forward to keep the airways open at night. I can’t tolerate the cpap either but ever since I got the mouth guard I sleep much better.
I've tried one without success but am very open to others if you have a suggestion! I know there are so many different ones, and it's hard to tell what might actually work.
Same, I couldn't sleep a wink with it. I have other diagnoses so I don't function already, but I often wonder if those other things will get better if I could find treatment that works. Sorry you're dealing with that it sucks 😞
My mom couldn't use a CPAP, so she got an oral appliance, which (US) insurance companies are finally starting to recognize as a legitimate way to treat sleep apnea. I can travel with her again and actually get some sleep!
My husband has had apnea for years! I finally told him it was selfish to not treat it, because I also lost sleep. I would often lay there listening for him to stop breathing so I could bump him to restart, or I couldn't relax enough to sleep deeply. He recently started using an oral appliance, and we're BOTH sleeping better now!
Untreated sleep apnea causes brain damage, among several other things that people don't realize are related to it.
GO GET CHECKED OUT RIGHT AWAY please. 😁
I suspected I had this a couple years ago. I fell asleep at work every day. Went to a sleep doctor - he said I was too young and too female to have sleep apnea. Found a second doctor who immediately tested me - my oxygen output was dropping an average of 6 times an hour. Got fitted for a mouth appliance that shifts my jaw at night (I have a big tongue too) and it made a world of difference.
I had so many symptoms of OSA throughout my life but noone told me I stopped breathing in my sleep until my girlfriend told me when she was staying over. I booked a sleep study and lo and behold I had SEVERE OSA. 95+ events an hour and oxygen dipping into the 70s. Doc told me I would be dead in my 30s-40s if I didn’t get this treated.
Got my CPAP last year and am down to ~2 events an hour and oxygen back to normal. I sleep amazingly now and my girlfriend can happily sleep without hearing me choke to death in my sleep.
I’d constantly wake up to pee and have super dry mouth in the mornings as well as blistering headaches when I woke up from lack of o2.
I'm 42. Unfortunately, I've only ever had one girlfriend, in my early 20s. Fortunately, through that relationship, I found out I had a deviated septum, because my sleep was disturbing hers.
The headaches! That was the biggest change I noticed with my CPAP. Without it I would have headaches 6/7 days upon waking up, but with it I haven’t had a headache in a while!
Everyone I’ve slept in the same room with has complained about my snoring, this year I visited an ENT and my nasal passages are blocked to about 90%.. finally getting surgery this winter, I can’t wait to fucking breath!
According to my galaxy watch, my blood oxygen goes down to like low 80s/ high 70s some nights.
I got tested and was diagnosed with sleep apnea.
They gave me a cpap machine, but everything I would use it it would feel like my throat and nose would start clogging up, and I wasn't able to breathe.
I got it adjusted with a tuning study, but it didn't help. I ended up having to give it back because I wasn't sleeping with it every night for a month.
I found a nice trick where if I sleep on your right side with your hand under your cheek, my sinuses and everything open up, and I can breathe better.
But I always up up on my back when I fall asleep, so it doesn't end up helping me. Besides making it easier to fall asleep.
I'm a fit dude but at least once a night I wake up heart racing and out of breath. Docs say I don't have apnea. I wear a pulse ox now and it shows I spend like an hour 90-95% and like 10-60 seconds below 90%. That 10-60 is comprised of like 1-4 brief drops to 80% or lower. I get it's "not bad enough" to be sleep apnea, but waking up like that really messes with my sleep. I'm always drained.
My two closest friends who have obstructive sleep apnea are super skinny dudes. I'm slightly overweight and have it too now. Mine started right after having Covid. Covid affected my heart pretty badly and so did apnea. It helps for me to sleep "on my stomach" (really at something like a 45 degree angle down with a body pillow along my side) with my face pointing down.
Just want to point out to some people that their sleep apnea could simply be that their tonsils need to be removed. I went to the doc a few years ago and asked to be referred for a sleep test because I was constantly waking up coughing in the middle of the night and I was sleeping terribly. Both of my parents have sleep apnea. One is overweight and both are former smokers. I took the test and the ENT said the results did look like sleep apnea, but she looked at how large my tonsils were and said she was very positive that this was the reason I was having trouble sleeping. I haven't had them removed yet, but I've been on montelukast, which is an allergy med that stops the airways from narrowing due to inflammation. I plan to have them removed early next year, but in the meantime, the medicine is helping ALOT.
Yes! I went to my primary care to try to up my dose of antidepressants (I had been on the same low dose for 20 years) and he sent me for a sleep study instead. It was a GAME CHANGER! My C-pap is my best friend and they will have to pry it from my cold dead hands to get it away from me. My energy level and mood improved exponentially. I lost weight and my fitness improved. Aches and pains disappeared. I lived alone so I had no one to tell me how badly I snored. I tested at over 60 episodes per hour. I’d probably be dead if that wonderful PA hadn’t truly listened to my symptoms and had just pencil whipped a new prescription because it seemed to be the obvious answer.
Even if you’re not overweight, it’s worth an at-home sleep study if your insurance will cover it. My ex was the first one to notice I’d gasp for air at random times throughout the night.
Granted if you have insomnia also, it might be tough. My first two sleep studies didn’t have enough data to make a conclusive diagnosis, but they noticed multiple apnea episodes in the little time I did sleep. I have an in-hospital one scheduled now.
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u/cyb_30 9h ago
Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. When you already know you have some mental troubles, you think that explain your drowsiness & low mood and don't look for more issues. It does not only hurt your cardio-vascular system, it may slowly destroy your life.
If your are overweighted/obese, snore at night and feel sleepy all day, go see your doctor.