Sleep Apnea Blog

Posts Tagged ‘sleep’

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea 2 years ago. I was given sleep-pack mask but it’s even harder to sleep with that on! Does anyone know of an alternative to the mask that works?!

depends on the causes of your sleep apnea. One of the main causes is being overweight, and you don’t even have to be a lot overweight. That’s not always the cause (my dad has it, and has always been on the leaner side). My older sister has it, and hers is DEFINITELY weight related.

Not knowing you i can’t say if weight is a factor or not, but you would know. If it is, try eating healthy, (which everybody should do anyhow), and you will lose weight as a side effect of eating healthy.

Sometimes sleeping on the side helps, but not always.

There are alternatives, i.e. surgery, but as for how well that works, not sure (according to a doc i saw recently, he says it’s 50/50, but anther doc said he gets good results). Surgery should ALWAYS be a last result however, but sleep apnea needs to be taken care of. It’s very hard on the heart.

I seem to sometimes wake up with a pounding heart, but I have been to the doctor twice and had normal ECGs and blood oxygen levels.

Hello!

I will try to answer to your question as simple as possible.

If you have sleep apnea disorder, your heart may be affected by serious health problems, such as:
-heart arrhythmia, or abnormal heart rhythm. It means that heart may have long pauses between beats, even 2 or 3 seconds long, or extra beats.
-congestive heart failure, in which the heart fails to adequately maintain the circulation of blood. So your heart will deliver low blood oxygen level to the body tissues.

You need to remember that all this heart problems appear most of the time during sleep, when you have apnea episodes.

With CPAP treatment, all this problem will disappear.

I hope this information will help you.

My boyfriend has no insurance. He cannot afford a machine. He wakes tired from this condition and he is a carpenter. Hard work with power tools. I worry about him.

you can’t cure sleep apnea even with a cpap machine. what you can do is get a uppp operation by a ent specialist or lose weight and do not drink alcohol before sleep. do not sleep flat on your back either. those things will help but you are right to be concerned.

Havinng his condiion myself I can tell you it is an airway blockage.

Morning issues such as dry throat, headaches, being very tired uppon waking, excessive daytime drowsiness which may also be narcolepsy.

Surgery cures most snoring but rarely apnea which is further back in the throat. There are treatments out there but the only one thhat works for me is a CPAP.

It is a continuous positive airway pressure system designed to keep the airway open.

Is a few episodes of central apnea and hypoapnea bad? I had a few episodes during a sleep study and only was able to sleep supine for 6 minutes, but during, had 1 episode of that, and 4 of the hypoapnea. I had NO obstructive apneas, yet was diagnosed with Mild Obstructive sleep apnea.

Apneas are never good, but a mild case is the least concerning case for you to have.
As long as you’re maintaining your oxygen levels to some degree and are getting moderate amounts of restful sleep every night, you may want to explore secondary options such as diet and exercise, Breathe right nasal strips or ambulatory surgery in order to fix your apneic case.
Talk to your doctor for more personalized information.

I have a 6 yr. old daughter who recently started having seizures in her sleep. (or recently that I know of) The first time I called 911, the second time I drove her to the hospital myself. They were 8 days apart and both were in the middle of the night. We went in and had a cat scan, mri and eeg. No signifacant results, which is good news, but I can’t live the rest of my life waking up every time she scratches an itch. She has always snored slightly and had to have her adnoids out at age 4 because of this. Does any one here have a sleep apnea and if so, have you ever had a seizure because of it?

well yes kinda my son 2 also has sleep apnea and as you know it is because they stop breathing(apnea) so if they stop for a longer amount of time then oxygen to the brain has stopped so they could sizer now remember I’m not a Dr this is just we were told by my sons Dr we also keep him on a pulse oxcemider at night so i know if he stops breathing you might ask for one good luck if you have any more ?s i will be happy to help

Hi. I am trying to figure what kind of illness that I am having and the doctors doesn’t seem to help. I’ve done many test and haven’t gotten to the point of what it is. So far the symptoms I am having is really low energy and not able to do things that I normally do, and always sleeping more than 8 hours sometimes it can be 13 hours straight. When I spoke to my doctors they thought I had problems with my thyroid and when I took the test it proved negative. Then I saw a sleep specialist and did 2 type of test a multiple latency test and a test where u have to sleep overnight all they found was sleep apnea one is obtrusive and the other is central and also periodic limb movement disorder. I also had to do the cpap test and that didnt help either. Nonetheless even with the medication they gave hasn’t worked…Someone tell me if they know what type of illness I have. Then I thought I had the chornica fatique syndrome or the Epstein-Barr virus , but I am unsure of it. What should I do?
I also did an Iron level test, and found that I am not anemic, but rather have too much Iron in my blood so far I’ve seen a total of 3 doctors. Also did a blood test for my blood sugar and saw that I was still in the safe zone and am not diabetic.
I’ve tried to do many things even changing my diet. I once weighed 180lbs and now weigh at 150lbs took me long enough I even did exercise but it was so hard to do them because I would give out too quick. I would feel so weak that I can’t even do a 10 min exercise. It’s like my muscles dont have any strength in them to lift something up .
No I dont get any arm pains when I comb my hair, but I just feel weak when I lift it its like my arm feels very weak I dont know any other way to explain it.
You know that is an interesting disease that is possible that I may have it cause all the symptoms do match for the muscle weakness. I dont know if it had anything to do with creatine I once took creatine to get bulkier.
These are all wonderful responses I will keep them in mind and make sure to do them. Also yes I have seen a psychologist and psychiatrist regarding depression and anxiety disorders just wanted to add this to my details to get a better idea of the situation.

Get your liver checked. The doctor can do a cbc and see if your liver enzymes are elevated. However, 40% of the people with hepatitis C have liver enzymes in the normal range, so you should have a hepatitis panel done. The first complaint people have with hepatitis C is they are fatigued. Next comes joint pain, headaches, etc. Best wishes, hope the doctors figure out what it is.

I have been having health problems since October. Symptoms im having are…muscle pain, weakness, sudden loss of strength, burning pain in joints, muscle spasms and cramps, fatigue,clumsiness like dropping things alot, unsteadiness, tingling in my legs and arms…my family doctor did blood work which came back normal, at first he thought i had fibromyalgia until i started having muscle weakness, he ruled out sleep apnea as I dont snore much and sleep fairly well nor do i have very many of the symptoms. He sent me to a neurologist as he thinks i have a neurological disorder…the neurologist says he thinks i have sleep apnea and scheduled a sleep study test, ive talked with others who have sleep apnea and they say I need to see a different neurologist and get a second opinion…has anyone else had these problems with sleep apnea???

The doctor is simply checking out the possibilities. A sleep study is routinely done with many fibromyalgia patients. He is correct that sleep apnea can cause many of the symptoms you are having.

A diagnosis of fibromyalgia is made inpart by excluding other things that couldbe the cause of the symptoms you are having. In addition it is not unusal for fibromyalgia patients to have several health problems in addition to the fibromyalgia.
Your doctor is covering all the bases and you should be happy that he is being thorough. I wish everyone got as good of help as you are getting.

Every person is different and each fibro patient has different symptoms and problems. The thing about fibro once you get the diagnosis , doctors tend to stop looking for other problems that could be causing your symptoms.

sleep apnea cpap machine with face mask can’t breathe nose has deveated septum
been to ENT dr hence the diagnosis of the septum. sleep study confirmed OSA
(husband) throat closes and deveated septum can’t breathe with or without mask, what to do? sleep dr not helpful.

First off, you really need to see an ear,nose throat doctor. it could be the cause of your sleep apnea. Fixing a deviated septum may help to open the nasal passages. A crooked septum can make breathing difficult. The condition also can lead to snoring and sleep apnea. The cpap is not going to help much.

Can depression or anxiety be caused by a sleep disorder (specifically Circadian Rhythm Sleep Disorder) or is the sleep disorder caused by the depression and anxiety? Or can it be either?

It can be either. We don’t always know what comes first-the chicken or the egg, so to speak-what we know is that there is a relationship. Serotonin is produced during sleep, so a disruption in sleep would affect serotonin levels and this could result in depression, particularly if the disruption was long term. Sleep disturbances are a hallmark of depression and could lead to a sleep disorder resulting from chronic insomnia. That’s why good sleep hygiene practices are so important in managing depression and why shift-work can exacerbate mental health issues in many people, especially those who are predisposed.