No wonder I'm so tired

Last night I tracked how many times I wake up by turning my machine off for a few seconds every time I woke up and checking the data in Sleepyhead in the morning. I woke up ten times, which is about twice as much as I actually remember waking up. No wonder I'm a walking zombie.

Hi Carmen,

Sorry you are part of the "fragmented sleep" club. Do you have any idea why this might be happening?

I wish you all the luck in the world in getting it resolved.

49er

49er wrote:Hi Carmen,

Sorry you are part of the "fragmented sleep" club. Do you have any idea why this might be happening?

I wish you all the luck in the world in getting it resolved.

49er

No idea. My AHI was 0.76. I suspect my waking is at least partially hormonal because I have hot flashes at night.

I know that I had extremely fragmented sleep until about 3 or 4 weeks into therapy. It started tapering off from that point until now, when I can usually sleep through the whole night.

My only guess is that my body was so used to waking up due to the OSA, that it kept doing it LOL.

Carmen wrote:I suspect my waking is at least partially hormonal because I have hot flashes at night.

Hot flashes will sure disrupt sleep even for those without the sleep apnea diagnosis. Fragmented sleep for any reason can and will impact how we feel the next day. Unfortunately the cpap machine doesn't do a good job regulating hormone levels and hot flashes. Been there myself and it took about 7 years to get past the bulk of it and I still have them occasionally even now and I am nearing 60. No hormone therapy for me due to family history of breast cancer.

There a good natural remedies for hot flashes that work. I never took hormones. I have found that the longer I use my CPAP machine the fewer times I wake up at night and I used to wake up frequently also. Now just over a month into my therapy I have started to have less awakenings.

I don't have hot flashes. I had frequent awakenings and fatigue even with otherwise good treatment numbers on cpap.
I found I have restless legs. I am being treated for that now with Requip, only after having lab work for Ferritin level and some other things which were normal. The pulmonologist said the next thing he would try if needed, is Ambien (CR?) to reset my sleep pattern. He suggested I use it for one week if needed and then discontinue. I haven't needed it.

Try Remifemin for help with hot flashes. A natural product that has been clinically studied and proven to work. http://www.remifemin.com/ You'll sleep much better!

One other thing that can make you fatigued is low Vitamin B-12. When I first started Cpap I had no energy. During my sleep study my legs didn't feel right. When my Doctor reviewed my sleep study results, he made me be tested for vitamin-B12 levels. One B-12 shot and I was better. Now I take the pill once a day. Never felt better.

apneawho wrote:I don't have hot flashes. I had frequent awakenings and fatigue even with otherwise good treatment numbers on cpap.
I found I have restless legs. I am being treated for that now with Requip, only after having lab work for Ferritin level and some other things which were normal. The pulmonologist said the next thing he would try if needed, is Ambien (CR?) to reset my sleep pattern. He suggested I use it for one week if needed and then discontinue. I haven't needed it.

Restless legs was pretty much ruled out by the sleep study. I can't get my doctor to prescribe Ambien--it's always, let's do another study and we'll see you in a few weeks. In the last six months, I've had a full sleep study, home study, thyroid tests, full heart workup, and oximetry, but I can't get them to prescribe a damn sleeping pill and I'm still not sleeping. I'm to the point of browsing online pharmacies trying to figure out what's safe because I'm desperate for some uninterrupted sleep.