do I need treatment?

Hi,

I am a 31 yo male and sometimes wake up in the night gasping for breath and feeling dizzy. My girlfriend sometime complains that I snore but she has not noticed that I stop breathing. I have been concerned about this and about a year ago I saw a doctor and he gave me some sort of machine that measured my breathing, or lack of, during the night. The results showed that I stop breathing for between 45 and 60 seconds 8 times per hour. My doctor didn't seem overly concerned about this and said that some people stop breathing 80 times per hour, so I didn't take it any further. I am a computer programmer and am finding it sometimes very hard to concentrate during the day and I am at a point where I think I really need to do something about it. My question is, should I seek treatment again or was my doctor right and I have nothing to worry about. Should I perhaps see another doctor?

BTW, my father had sleep apnea for years and he always seemed to be sleepy or a bit vague. He never got treatment for it and has now been diagnosed with dementia. I read somewhere that there may be a link between sleep apnea and dementia. Is this true or am I perhaps worrying unneccesarily?

I'm no doctor but I don't think you are worrying unnecessarily at all. I'd see another doctor - about getting a sleep study.

P.S. Candree, if you will register for this forum, I'd like to send you a private message. You're a computer programmer. It occured to me you might want to do what I did to treat my apnea. I was uninsured and didn't want to spend money out of pocket to go for a sleep study.

rested gal wrote:P.S. Candree, if you will register for this forum, I'd like to send you a private message. You're a computer programmer. It occured to me you might want to do what I did to treat my apnea. I was uninsured and didn't want to spend money out of pocket to go for a sleep study.

I'm intrigued. If you have any ideas please let me know. Thanks

I would see a sleep disorders specialist. Was your doctor implying that 80 interruptions per hour is OK? If he was, he is wrong. Forty per hour is considered severe sleep apnea.

I believe that eight interruptions per hour is considered mild, but at over 45 seconds the length seems long. I have 80 per hour, but the average length is only 20 seconds.

Let me add to my previous message.

At home there is a limit to what they can test for. In a sleep study center, they will test for many other things. They will also test to see how low the oxygen saturation of your blood goes. They will also see how much time you are spending at the deeper levels of sleep. These are actually the most important numbers.

Candree,

Do you have any other symptoms such as high blood pressure, excessive daytime sleepyness, depression? You said you feel you have some difficulty with concentration.

I had my first sleep study done and I had an AHI of 12 (yours is eight). My sleep center said they don't treat anybody unless their AHI is 15 or above. I did some research and found that if you have any of the accompanying symptoms (as listed above) you should be treated if you have an AHI above 4. My Doc agreed and helped me get my insurance to approve another study.

I had my sleep study redone and I am now on cpap.

I'm happy to see rested gal has offered her advice. She has extensive personal experience with cpap and in my opinion has done a great job of taking control of her treatment.

I too spend my days in front of the computer in a job that requires mental concentration and have found cpap very beneficial.

Good Luck!

Thankyou for the replies. I got some very good advice and I am sure that it will make my next steps much easier.

Thanks again.

If your father has been untreated for his apnea his dementia could be sleep deprivation caused. It might be reversible. Get it checked out. More and more research is being done. Now they say apnea causes add in adults, or the symptoms are the same. Why not demetia (a very unspecific diagnosis).

This is how I feel now, but I know after starting on my cpap tonight for the first time, I will feel like this ....

Howdy everyone my name is Kimm, I just recently found out I have sleep apnea, and they called me today to help me get my machine to take home. I am so lucky that this town has a program called Project Access, and it helps ppl like me with no ins. get things that I normally couldnt get, because I cannot afford it, its around $1,000, I dont have that kind of money, as most ppl dont.....

The place they sent me too, gets them donated, and she gave me one to use as a loaner, I believe my apnea is mostly caused by being overweight, and I believe I will feel like my old self again I will lose weight keep it off, and wont need it for the rest of my life...

They said I definetly need the cpap machine because I stop breathing about 90 times per hour, dont know how long it lasts havent seen the doc yet since I had the study done!!

Anyways just wanted to say hi, and ty for having me, and I hope to understand this disease better, and make some new friends, hagn and ty Kimm aka Toadie