Tired of being tired

This is where I am at so far. Diagnosed with Sleep Apnea 2 years ago. Lost weight recently to help with sleeping - went from 220 to 175. CPAP helps my tired feeling but far from 100%. Its like the difference between being still tired with 8-10 hours sleep and having trouble concentrating on study/work VS not being on the CPAP and running the real risk of crashing a car during a mid day drive or home from work by falling asleep. So, I obviously am happy to find the CPAP but I hoped for more (I think I have multiple problems and the CPAP is just fixing one aspect). After a year I started taking Provigil to help with the persistent sleepy feelings (mind you I have now quit smoking, stopped consuming alcohol and no caffeine in any form). I take 100mg in the morning, although sometimes I will find myself needing 200mg. Each quit (especially caffeine has improved things but its still not right). All the tired feelings usually start within an hour or two of being up. When I first wake up, I am very awake, but then its like a wave comes over me and I feel my eyes getting heavy and burning a bit. This has been most of my life, since around 11 years old or so I have had this cloud over me, I can remember falling asleep in class, one time in music class I fell asleep and banged my head against the music stand. The eye burning thing is the most familiar thing and what I always think of. I wonder if anyone else notices this too with their tired feelings, the eye burning I mean. I have started eating organic food and I exercise regularly (I lost weight through exercise). I try to avoid excessive sugar etc. Its just this morning I am so damn tired after 10 hours sleep and that tired feeling came again after an hour or two and I am at my wits end. Its cost me so much in my life from academics to work to everything.

Welcome Polyex

Reading your post, I do feel for you. I hope you find some help with the sleepiness problems soon.

1)
Do you think you are getting adequate therapy from the machine? If you tell us the following it will help

your machine
your humidifier
interface (mask) - what sorts do you use, and do they fit?
the pressures your machine is set at.

Do you have access to any data from your machine (leak rate, apnoea rate and so on?

If you feel up to it you can go into "profile" at the top of the page and edit your profile to show your machine and humidifier and softwear on every post.

There are lots of really good people here to help you with cpap therapy.


2)
Who diagnosed your sleep apnoea, and were other sleep related disorders investigated (like restless leg syndrome).

Have you had any medical follow up re the cpap therapy?

3)
Have you had other causes for your sleepiness examined? I'm thinking a thorough physical including bloodwork for anaemia, thyroid function etc.


Good luck!

Di


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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): humidifier, CPAP

CONGRATULATIONS on the quitting smoking and the weight loss!!! Neither was easy to do I'm sure!!!

Moby brought up some good points. Especially whether you've been back to a sleep specialist and whether any other sleep disturbances were noted during your sleep evaluation and titration studies. Have you had a sleep evaluation/titration since your accomplishments of quittings and weight loss? And have you had a good thorough physical specifically for your continued tiredness since your quitting accomplishments?

I'd be inclined to push my doctor(s) for both evaluations, CPAP and "the tireds".

Good luck and God bless. Life w/o sufficient rest can be a real effort instead of a joy!

Have you ever had loss of muscle control or numbness in your limbs during times of high stress or emotions? ( Laughing, crying, etc) Were you ever tested for nacolepsy? This is done with an MSLT which is when you have an overnight study and then stay the next day to take a series of naps. I hope that that has been looked into. Narcolepsy is so overlooked. Especially because it started so young. Make sure you talk to your DR, but I have had some patients that took 100mg provigil in the AM and 100mg provigil right after lunch. (Again I am not saying that's what you should do, please ask your DR) Narcolepic people tend to discuss "Clouds over them" or walking in a fog. Most of the patients I have been in contact with have the "want to" they just donn't have the get up and go. Please don't think I am trying to diagnos you with anything, just give you another idea to explore.

Another possibility is that the settings/mask are not getting the job done. I found that I have to prevent mouth leakage of the treatment before the therapy works well for me.

Give us the profile info. when you can and hang in there.

TerryB

you might also want to consider if you have some kind of nasal problems that might be interfearing with treatment.

Have you ever been checked for GERD (acid reflux)? This is very common in sleep apnea, since negative pressure builds during inspiration and somach acids reflux up into the nasopharynx, causing irritation of the larynx and sinuses (and thus further apnea) and maybe even eyeburning.... taking prescrition antacids, eating less before bed, and sleeping on a special wedge pillow can help--you can order online at http://www.medslant.com/medslant-faq.html or elsewhere. Good luck!

And also:

What kind of machine do you have?

There are machines that can help you monitor the results of you own therapy,

Are you aware that you can ask to have your pulse oxygen monitored at home for a night or two? That too can indicate how your therapy is going.

Were your pressure needs checked again after all that weigh loss?

O.

Welcome!!!
what they all said!!!!
Also, congratulations on the weight loss and the smoking!!! I'm sure that in itself makes you feel a whole lot better......
Now to work on the tired....
Sounds like a visit to your doc is in order!! Be persistent!!!

It would help to know the machine and mask type?? Are you having leaks in the mask?? Are you using a nasal interface and having mouth leaks??
My eye burning is due to allergies - some Naphcon A clears it right up (allergy eyedrops - OTC!!). I also know that allergies can cause that tired feeling

Good luck getting to the bottom of the problem.
Keep us up on how you're doing!!!!

cheers
goose

I have been fighting the super fatigue (black cloud) for almost two years myself. My thyroid started to shut down, causing all body functions to also to start to shut down. Google "Hypothryoidism".

I was checked out by a hormone doctor, who found that my system was low on everything. I too would sleep ten to twelve hours a day.

I believe that the hypothryoidism and sleep apnea was causing my system to swing wildly. When the doctors would look at each problem, they couldn't understand why I was super tired. When both conditions were considered together, the doctors said it made sense.

When I got poor sleep, my body shuts down affecting my thyroid which shut down more so causing the body to get even more tired.

When I slept on my side and got good sleep, my body started speeding up again. That's why I would have cycles of feeling good and feeling bad.

The trick is to stablize the sleep and then try to stablize the thyroid.

On the issue of buring eyes, make sure that your mask is not too big and leaking into your eyes. And second, the mask is not moving around on your face during the night and leaking into your eyes.

Does your mask vent on the top of the bridge of your nose and is defected into your eyes?

Still yawning,

The spell checker changed a spelling. Please Google " Hypothyroidism". One of the main syptoms of low thyroid hormone is major fatigue.

How's it going, polyex?