Sleep apnea

[Thinktank]

Lately i've been suffering from what's possibly sleep apnea. I get 7 to 8 hours of sleep but wake up feeling poisoned, and like i've been breathing through a straw all night long. It now takes a few hours of deep breathing in the morning to be able to go get out of bed, i'm completely exhausted by this breathing problem on top of ME.

Does anyone else here have sleep apnea? What are you doing or taking to relieve the sleep apnea?

 

[hangininthere]

Several years ago a high dose of Magnesium at bedtime every night eased what I suspect was my sleep apnea. When asleep, I would gasp and it would wake me up.

I took 1,000 mg. Magnesium for a year for something else and the apnea cleared right up right away. Plus I woke up in the morning alert instead of lying there in a stupor for hours.

The improvement has lasted all these years, even after I quit taking the magnesium after a year. No gasping and waking during sleep, and wake up in morning alert every time. (My 'morning' is late in day, night-owl here.)

Patti

 

[*GG*]

I've never woken from gasping, I use a machine for my sleep apnea. Are you saying you don't use a machine? Have you had a sleep study done?

 

[hangininthere]

I've never woken from gasping, I use a machine for my sleep apnea. Are you saying you don't use a machine? Have you had a sleep study done?

No sleep study. I only suspect because of the waking up with a gasp like my brother does who had a sleep study and can't stand to wear his machine and wakes up with a gasp at different times during sleep like I did.

When I tried antidepressants, the waking up with a gasp throughout the night or 'apnea' was worse. I suspect certain medications could cause or worsen apnea, too. That's something to consider.

Patti

 

[Pyrrhus]

Related discussions:

Sleep Apnea
https://forums.phoenixrising.me/threads/sleep-apnea.83515/

Shortness of breath while trying to sleep?
https://forums.phoenixrising.me/threads/shortness-of-breath-while-trying-to-sleep.86517/

 

[eric_gladiator]

I've had this feeling for a long time, I'm worse when I get up than when I go to bed. Vivid dreams, mental heaviness with a lot of lack of concentration... I've tried sleeping with ventilation and it improves but it doesn't cure and I return to the same state

 

[belize44]

I have a lot of the same questions. I started Cpap therapy last year and at first I slept beautifully and felt well rested the next day. Then it started to change for some reason; I started fighting the air flow and ripping my mask off in my sleep. I felt like I was being forced to breathe too fast. I switched from Cpap to Apap. While I find that I can wear the mask longer, the puzzling thing is that I am back to feeling exactly like I did when I was not using any kind of breathing device. In other words, it isn't helping at all! Just today I woke gasping for air, and I was wearing the mask!

The concerning thing is that most of us are already at a sleep deficit, and our organs are being starved of oxygen each time our breathing/ sleep is disrupted. Important repair work in our bodies is constantly being disrupted, so we wake exhausted and drained before our day has even begun. I wish I knew the answers!

 

[Pendergast]

Hi all!
I was diagnosed with sleep apnea one year ago after a sleep polygraphy made at home and was put on a CPAP.

I noticed a great improvement since the first day.

The wake up feeling of being poisoned, as @Thinktank says, was gone.

No more need of long naps during the day and less fatigue, cognitive dysfunction and PEM (although I still have all of these).

Other symptoms like chronic nausea didn't improve.

I don't understand well how I can have ME and sleep apnea together although Carmen Scheibenbogenb
mentions some of this stuff in this hypothesis paper:

https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S1568997220300823?via=ihub

In any case I encourage you to discard this problem, specially if you wake up feeling like a fu...ng sh...t and poisoned.

I was NOT obese and I DIDN'T snore a lot so Drs didn't thought I could have apneas. They were wrong and I have been living unnecesarily DECADES with this stuff which in the long-term can cause other problems like heart ones.

The CPAP is very, very unconfortable for me and I'm sleeping less due to this but I stick to it because I wouldn't be able to get up as bad as before, anymore...

A big hug to all of you!

 

[BrightCandle]

I was NOT obese and I DIDN'T snore a lot so Drs didn't thought I could have apneas. They were wrong and I have been living unnecesarily DECADES with this stuff which in the long-term can cause other problems like heart ones.

A lot of the people I attended my CPAP training with certainly were obese, but then we know that Sleep apnea causes weight gain so which came first?

I remember a doctor telling me if I dropped 10KG I would cure my Apnea, so I lost 15 KG and my treatment pressure went up 0.5. Its more complex than just weight, it can be weight that causes it but the weight is also a symptom of the condition as well and it becomes easier to loose it once the sleep is repaired.

The CPAP is very, very unconfortable for me and I'm sleeping less due to this but I stick to it because I wouldn't be able to get up as bad as before, anymore...

You get used to it, eventually you wont be able to sleep with out it. Don't ignore the comfort factors like hydration and temperature and if the mask is leaking do something about it and refit and if that doesn't work get a different mask. Finding the right combination of gear can really matter to getting good therapy. On youtube start this journey with someone like the LankyLeft.

 

[Pendergast]

A lot of the people I attended my CPAP training with certainly were obese, but then we know that Sleep apnea causes weight gain so which came first?

I remember a doctor telling me if I dropped 10KG I would cure my Apnea, so I lost 15 KG and my treatment pressure went up 0.5. Its more complex than just weight, it can be weight that causes it but the weight is also a symptom of the condition as well and it becomes easier to loose it once the sleep is repaired

Hi!

In my case I have been underweight all these years in which I had the symptoms that have now disappeared or improved with the CPAP (This is the only way I have to be sure that I had the apneas all this years before the diagnosis).

So definitively, weight was not a factor in my case.

Also thanks for your advices about the CPAP!

So far I tried two masks I will keep on fighting with it!

 

[Thinktank]

Hi!

In my case I have been underweight all these years in which I had the symptoms that have now disappeared or improved with the CPAP (This is the only way I have to be sure that I had the apneas all this years before the diagnosis).

So definitively, weight was not a factor in my case.

Also thanks for your advices about the CPAP!

So far I tried two masks I will keep on fighting with it!

Same here! I am underweight and rarely snore. I had 4 sleep studies done, all came back inconclusive or negative.
I tried to explain to the doctors that i don't sleep well with that damn computer around my middle and all the wires and tubes around my face. This prevents me from sleeping in my natural position which is more on my side or stomach.

So, I suffer from ALL the sleep apnea symptoms and my wife told me sometimes i just stop breathing or breathe very shallow. I asked the docs to just try out a cpap or apap machine, but no... the test is inconclusive or negative so the insurance won't allow it. I'm now considering buying a CPAP or APAP online somehow and just try it out by myself because this problem is really taking its toll on my quality of life.
I do NOT take no for an answer any longer, i'm 100% sure the problem is sleep apnea. SO here i am yet AGAIN, trying to figure it all out by myself because these docs have to adhere to standard protocol which just doesn't suit me.

There are days, like 3 in a year where i wake up feeling "normal", like sleep apnea didn't occur that night, the way i then feel is like a difference in day and night.

 

[Pendergast]

I tried to explain to the doctors that i don't sleep well with that damn computer around my middle and all the wires and tubes around my face. This prevents me of sleeping in my natural position which is more on my side or stomach.

Yes, the whole diagnostic stuff was really uncomfortable and challenging. For me it was difficult to fall asleep (I had to take an extra dose of sleeping pills).

I also had to repeat the measurement a second night because they gave me the device with dead batteries so the first night it didn't record well.... That was like

All these years I felt that the less I slept, the better I felt the next day. Now I know why.

In my case, the measurements revealed that when I sleep on my side I have less apneas (15/hour) than when I am on my back (62/hour, so I almost do not breathe!)

The only explanation they gave me is that I have a narrow palate and throat, and when I'm on my back, my tongue falls back and completely blocks my throat.

So I encourage you not to give up and continue to pursue this thing if you think that there is something going on there.

Good luck!

 

[BrightCandle]

The NHS for me did just a very basic SPO2 monitor test that you wear on your finger. You need one that can record for the night so you can review the data that next day as most are just momentary, but technically if you drop below 92 SPO2 in the night you have a problem with oxygen while you sleep. Then to assess the level of treatment they use an APAP with its complete range of 4.0 - 20.0 for a week and take the 95% point as your treatment.

As a process this will be less invasive and an SPO2 is about £100. That is probably a good first step because if you can't find evidence with that monitor then there isn't any point buying a much more expensive APAP machine. I don't think you can just get a CPAP because the way they find the pressure you need is using an APAP, it increases until your breathing is under control so you will need one and it will then become the machine. But do the SPO2 sleep analysis first its cheaper and unless you show up on that there isn't any point buying APAP.

 

[belize44]

I'm now considering buying a CPAP or APAP online somehow and just try it out by myself because this problem is really taking its toll on my quality of life.

I'm afraid that you can't just buy a CPAP on line. Most places that sell them need a script from your doctor before they can sell you one; even used machines need a prescription. There is one site that I was checking out, where you can have their physician provide you with a sleep study and then if he thinks you have issues, he will give you a script and you can buy a machine. It is very pricey, though. If you can cut insurance out of the loop, get your diagnoses on your own, possibly insurance will reimburse you for the home sleep study and machine.