Feel stressed

[ozze_dollar]

I very rarely even take a nap without using my machine but on the odd occasion that I have napped not using my machine I have noticed that I feel stressed later in the day.
I never thought that sleep apnea would be the cause of my stress.
I suffered badly over many years and even left my job because of it.I know I was very good at my job but the fact was I was suffering stress.
I have been using VPAP for around 18 m0nths and its true my stress is much less but I always thought it was because I am now retired or even because I now take blood pressure tablets.
I am still not sure but its possible that using the machine takes away my stress.If its true I could have kept on working if my sleep apnea had been diagnosed earlier.
Anyone with some thoughts.

[Julie]

I would think that apnea is not so much the cause of your stress as the fact that you get tired more quickly because you didn't use the machine for your naps.

[Sheriff Buford]

I definitely feel that lack of quality sleep will cause stress. At my job yesterday, we had a young doctor talk to us about fatigue... caused by lack of sleep. She mentioned symptoms of a person that lacks quality sleep and stress was one of them. Made sense to me. If you are not getting the quality sleep you need and are trying to function "normally", you lack of being "normal' will stress you out.

Sheriff

[corybodette]

it definitely makes sense because the night of my sleep study on the 20th of this month i went in stressed to the max and the morning i woke up from the sleep study i have had no stress at all. the next night sleeping at home i slept like crap woke up tired and stressed out.

[ozze_dollar]

Well I guess the moral of the story is USE YOUR MACHINE.

[zoocrewphoto]

From what I understand, when we stop breathing, we release adrenalin to get us going again. Putting that into our system is going to make us feel stressed.

[BlackSpinner]

I very rarely even take a nap without using my machine but on the odd occasion that I have napped not using my machine I have noticed that I feel stressed later in the day.
I never thought that sleep apnea would be the cause of my stress.
.

Every event is like having an anxiety attack, heart racing, stress hormones pumping to get you to breathe again. Those stress hormones don't disappear quickly. You were still ready to wrestle that tiger to the ground when you woke, and walked around all day looking for it, waiting for it to pounce again.

[stage0]

Sleep deprivation/fragmentation is part of a vicious cycle with stress an only one result. The deprivation adds to: depletion in your brain of serotonin; immune system compromised; lowers pain tolerances; emotional over-reactions and inhibits healing. If you were going through large oxygen variations during sleep; then these can also stress youir heart and circulation system

[SethW]

I think it's entirely possible your body is under less stress because you are treating your sleep apnea, for the reasons that have already been cited here by others. It's also possible that you were being stressed by work. Or maybe both! But hearing that CPAP therapy has helped to take away your stress would not surprise me at all. I would also not be surprised to hear that you had lower blood pressure or that you had lost weight since starting CPAP therapy. Did either of those things happen (if you don't mind my asking)? Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

[zoocrewphoto]

Every event is like having an anxiety attack, heart racing, stress hormones pumping to get you to breathe again. Those stress hormones don't disappear quickly. You were still ready to wrestle that tiger to the ground when you woke, and walked around all day looking for it, waiting for it to pounce again.

I really like this description. I wish I could get my brother to understand this. He wants to use his bad dreams as an excuse as to why he couldn't possibly sleep with a mask on. But it is the sleep apnea that is causing the bad dreams and have him waking up highly stressed.

[Sheriff Buford]

I would also not be surprised to hear that you had lower blood pressure or that you had lost weight since starting CPAP therapy. Did either of those things happen (if you don't mind my asking)? Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't.

This has been a topic here a lot of times. For me, I dropped bunches of weight, my blood pressure and glucose levels dropped and have stayed down. It happens that way for most folks. Some folks did not lose weight and some have gained. Its amazing to see what happens to your body when you treat your sleep apnea.

Sheriff