Tips for fighting exhaustion until I can start treatment

[ThatGuyTyh-ish]

It's gotten to a point where I'm so utterly exhausted by 1h30PM that I have difficulty making it through the day. Any suggestions to help with this until I am able to start treatment? I did my first sleep study a couple of weeks ago, waiting on full results due in about a week, then I'll have to get a 2nd sleep study and wait a few weeks for those results before I can get a prescription from my doc and have insurance cover the xpap. I feel like downing a bunch of coffee or energy drinks is probably ill-advised. Any other advise?

[Madalot]

It's gotten to a point where I'm so utterly exhausted by 1h30PM that I have difficulty making it through the day. Any suggestions to help with this until I am able to start treatment? I did my first sleep study a couple of weeks ago, waiting on full results due in about a week, then I'll have to get a 2nd sleep study and wait a few weeks for those results before I can get a prescription from my doc and have insurance cover the xpap. I feel like downing a bunch of coffee or energy drinks is probably ill-advised. Any other advise?

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dont use an alarm clock

if you get tired take a nap

some coffee okay for breakfast
stay off the stimulants the rest of the day

try to sleep on your side


i had to wait months between each of those steps
almost a year until i got my asv
your treatment is moving along fast

expect lsat lucy guest and a bunch of others to come along soon and claim i am wrong
sling ad hominems but never post a fact disproving my advice

I'm not lsat, lucy or guest, but will I do?

The only one I'm going to disagree with (not saying you're wrong, just disagreeing and being polite about it) is the no alarm thing. While I get where it's coming from, it's not always feasible for people to NOT use an alarm. Not knowing the poster's personal situation (working, retired, babysitting kids, etc) it's hard to know what they need to do each day.

My husband gets up at 6am on school days. I wake up most days way before then, but have been known to doze back off. Him too. We NEED the alarm to ensure we get up on time. Because even though we go to bed in plenty of time to wake up naturally by 6am, we can have a bad night (I have them a lot) and not be awake at 6 like we need to be.

[ThatGuyTyh-ish]

Alarms are a must for most of the reasons madalot mentioned. Its actually a win for me since my wife used to have 6 alarms and I managed to get her to move them past my wake up time (i generally get up 30 min before her to get things done because I'm way more of a morning person than her). To be fair, I do usually wake up before my alarm rings, sometimes mere minutes before, usually to go to the bathroom. This happens regardless of what time I go to bed at. I do however wake up a lot as well so sometimes im in and out of sleep from 5 to 6 am. I'm a stomach sleeper but have been trying to sleep on my side in anticipation but for whatever reason, when I sleep on my side, I get a lot of soreness in my back, neck and shoulder (the one I sleep on). Any tricks on side sleeping? Maybe its my weight at 285, I'm not a small guy.

[ThatGuyTyh-ish]

xxyzx "expect lsat lucy guest and a bunch of others to come along soon and claim i am wrong
sling ad hominems but never post a fact disproving my advice"
Don't worry so much about it bud. Post your comments and that's what I'll juge. The heat will die down I bet

[Madalot]

Alarms are a must for most of the reasons madalot mentioned. Its actually a win for me since my wife used to have 6 alarms and I managed to get her to move them past my wake up time (i generally get up 30 min before her to get things done because I'm way more of a morning person than her). To be fair, I do usually wake up before my alarm rings, sometimes mere minutes before, usually to go to the bathroom. This happens regardless of what time I go to bed at. I do however wake up a lot as well so sometimes im in and out of sleep from 5 to 6 am. I'm a stomach sleeper but have been trying to sleep on my side in anticipation but for whatever reason, when I sleep on my side, I get a lot of soreness in my back, neck and shoulder (the one I sleep on). Any tricks on side sleeping? Maybe its my weight at 285, I'm not a small guy.

I've always been a side sleeper so it's hard for me to give you advice on it. Just try to stay off your back if you can.

[Rainmom17]

Try a couple different type pillows for side sleeping. I recently realized mine was too thick and am doing better with a thinner one.

Be on your feet as much as you can. When I'm sedentary, the exhaustion hits me so hard. Best remedy for me is to stand up and just be on my feet for a bit, even if it's just taking care of stuff around the house.

Good luck! The waiting is hard!

[ThatGuyTyh-ish]

Try a couple different type pillows for side sleeping. I recently realized mine was too thick and am doing better with a thinner one.

Be on your feet as much as you can. When I'm sedentary, the exhaustion hits me so hard. Best remedy for me is to stand up and just be on my feet for a bit, even if it's just taking care of stuff around the house.

Good luck! The waiting is hard!

Thanks rainmom17! I work as a web developer so I'm sitting at a desk most of my day unfortunately, but I'll try to take little walks in the afternoon to keep me going

[ThatGuyTyh-ish]

Madalot - Sleeping on my back isnt so bad except that my own snoring wakes me up constantly if I try to sleep on my back. Its really when I lay completely on my side that I have discomfort. I will try adjusting my side sleeping, maybe some kind of hybrid stomach side gimmick hahaha

[ThatGuyTyh-ish]

Try a couple different type pillows for side sleeping. I recently realized mine was too thick and am doing better with a thinner one.

I've actually always used a thin pillow (vs my wife who uses 2 huge fluffers). Using even 1 fluffy pillow is too much for me and gives me neck soreness.

[WearyOne]

I sleep mostly on my sides, and I find that keeping my knees in a bent position with a pillow between my knees helps if my back starts acting up. Sometimes I use a regular pillow and other times one of those neck roll pillows. I read that someone a long time ago and it really seems to help me.

[Guest]

It's gotten to a point where I'm so utterly exhausted by 1h30PM that I have difficulty making it through the day. Any suggestions to help with this until I am able to start treatment? I did my first sleep study a couple of weeks ago, waiting on full results due in about a week, then I'll have to get a 2nd sleep study and wait a few weeks for those results before I can get a prescription from my doc and have insurance cover the xpap. I feel like downing a bunch of coffee or energy drinks is probably ill-advised. Any other advise?

=========

dont use an alarm clock

if you get tired take a nap

some coffee okay for breakfast
stay off the stimulants the rest of the day

try to sleep on your side


i had to wait months between each of those steps
almost a year until i got my asv
your treatment is moving along fast

expect lsat lucy guest and a bunch of others to come along soon and claim i am wrong
sling ad hominems but never post a fact disproving my advice

Ive been resorting to allowing myself to fall asleep for a short period of time in my desk chair however it has been giving me a bit of anxiety because I tend to be an over achiever at work and have been really struggling between keeping up my level of work/keeping up my quality of work/getting through my work day. It's been getting progressively worse over the last 4 years but especially bad the last 6 months. Im happy I dont have to wait years though. That really sucks.

[ThatGuyTyh-ish]

I sleep mostly on my sides, and I find that keeping my knees in a bent position with a pillow between my knees helps if my back starts acting up. Sometimes I use a regular pillow and other times one of those neck roll pillows. I read that someone a long time ago and it really seems to help me.

Funny you say that. My wife is a side sleeper and because of my discomfort I never understoud how she does it but now that you mention it, she sleeps with a pillow between her knees. Never occuree to me that it may help the discomfort in my neck and back. I'll try that!

[MaxINTJ]

It's gotten to a point where I'm so utterly exhausted by 1h30PM that I have difficulty making it through the day. Any suggestions to help with this until I am able to start treatment? I did my first sleep study a couple of weeks ago, waiting on full results due in about a week, then I'll have to get a 2nd sleep study and wait a few weeks for those results before I can get a prescription from my doc and have insurance cover the xpap. I feel like downing a bunch of coffee or energy drinks is probably ill-advised. Any other advise?

While some folks here will probably disagree, coffee is your friend. Since injuring my neck and getting half of what was not near enough sleep, I find myself drinking 10-12 cups of coffee per day - usually starting at 3AM when the pain wakes me up. I have long drives to and from work so I try to have 3-4 cups before leaving in the morning, then 1 cup and 2 Nodoze before leaving work in the afternoon, I now have 2-4 cups in the evening to keep me from falling asleep by 6:00.

Yes, too much caffeine can be bad, but in both our cases it should be relatively short term. When I get decent sleep I only drink 3-4 cups per day.

[ThatGuyTyh-ish]

It's gotten to a point where I'm so utterly exhausted by 1h30PM that I have difficulty making it through the day. Any suggestions to help with this until I am able to start treatment? I did my first sleep study a couple of weeks ago, waiting on full results due in about a week, then I'll have to get a 2nd sleep study and wait a few weeks for those results before I can get a prescription from my doc and have insurance cover the xpap. I feel like downing a bunch of coffee or energy drinks is probably ill-advised. Any other advise?

While some folks here will probably disagree, coffee is your friend. Since injuring my neck and getting half of what was not near enough sleep, I find myself drinking 10-12 cups of coffee per day - usually starting at 3AM when the pain wakes me up. I have long drives to and from work so I try to have 3-4 cups before leaving in the morning, then 1 cup and 2 Nodoze before leaving work in the afternoon, I now have 2-4 cups in the evening to keep me from falling asleep by 6:00.

Yes, too much caffeine can be bad, but in both our cases it should be relatively short term. When I get decent sleep I only drink 3-4 cups per day.

I usually have about 1 large and 1 medium coffee a day. One when I start work and one at some point during the day as needed. I just assumed most would warn me against drinking more but honestly I'm not quite sure what else to do.

[Julie]

If you have a recliner, try sleeping in that - upright seems to lessen apnea events. I'd also check with my MD re getting x-rays etc. for your back - if you e.g. have scoliosis it could definitely have an effect on sleep position. And do use the knee pillow idea. But I don't recommend going crazy with coffee - it may suit that poster, but otherwise is not known to be an answer to anything except that it could aggravate GERD (acid reflux) in a big way, something associated too often with apnea and it''s also called 'silent' Gerd, wakening you just enough to spoil your sleep (as apnea does) but not enough for you to be aware of it and address it properly.