Still feel tired.

I did a sleep study because of my snoring, and was diagnosed with sleep apnea. When I first started with cpap, I'd heard lots of testimonials of how it's changed peoples' lives, that they feel so much more rested in the morning, and more energetic and focused and less irritable during the day. It's been a couple months now. I do know from a co-worker with whom I travel on the road a lot, that cpap has in fact stopped me from snoring. He's also said that I seem much more peaceful when I'm sleeping.
But I still can't quite say that I really feel more rested in the morning. I still have problems with feeling tired, lethargic and depressed during the day. People tell me it takes some time before you really start to feel a difference. How long should it take before I really start to feel better. Is anyone else having this experience?

for some of us, I doubt we ever will feel fully rested.

I've been on cpap for 5 yrs. and still feel the way you do, have learned to live with it, but I keep searching as I know it is worse without cpap, you think your not rested and tired now, just go off cpap for a week and see what happens.

Tarzan - It's still a bit soon to think you'll get no more energy back. You may not regain "the best you've ever been" but you can still get better and better. Some people have been untreated longer and/or had more severe apnea and are more physically and emotionally depleted than others.

I was so doggedly determined to "push through" the tiredness and brain fog, by the time I "crashed" I was so low that I seriously was wondering if I'd sunk too low to ever recover. I literally could barely put one foot in front of the other. Once I "let go" and allowed myself to feel everything full force, the collapse was total. It took about 8 to 10 weeks of hibernation for me to even begin to come out of it. One day I woke up, looked outside, and had the energy to want to join the day, even if briefly. I wasn't depressed. I was in recovery, and allowed my body and mind whatever it needed with no apologies and no guilt. I now feel indescribably better than at that time a few months ago. But with so far to go, I'm still frequently barely functional. As I strive for more mask time and better compliance, there's no reason not to expect continued improvement.

I always cringe when I read stories of those who are trying to recover on what should be maintenance sleep time, not recovery sleep time. Some may say they don't have any extra time to sleep more - I didn't either. Till it cost me a 10 year job which was my only source of income, my insurance, and my health. (That was not necessarily for you, Tarzan, but in general.)

Oh, and my crash came after nearly 8 months of ineffective cpap therapy. Visiting this web site helped me have the courage and knowledge to challenge my doc that what he was doing was not enough, and he ordered a 2 week trial on an autopap. Turns out my titrated pressure was at least 3 points below what I needed. If your cpap therapy is proved to be therapeutic, have your doc investigate other possible sleep related and non sleep related causes of your tiredness. Life is too short to live it less alive than necessary.

Tarzan, hope you'll soon feel like swinging from the trees again.

Kathy

Tarzan have you been back to the doctor for your follow up appointment after starting your treatment at the one to two month mark?

Your pressure may still need to be adjusted.

You may or may not be depressed.

I just started a post, because I feel like I need even more sleep then before starting with my APAP.



Kathy thank you for such a personal and good post.

As Selfseeker says, plus you are using a nasal interface, and could be mouthbreathing, that's why you need a machine that gives you data and the software to trend where your at with treatment, it's hard to drive in a snow storm. At best it takes time, but if you don't do it correctly it can take forever. Jim

kteague wrote:I always cringe when I read stories of those who are trying to recover on what should be maintenance sleep time, not recovery sleep time. Some may say they don't have any extra time to sleep more - I didn't either. Till it cost me a 10 year job which was my only source of income, my insurance, and my health.

Kathy,
Such a well worded crucial point. Some of us are sleeping the bare minimum of hours that someone NON OSA would barely be scraping by on. I am obviously dealing with off the wall abnormal sleep stages, so I am not dumbfounded as to why I am tired. But I do wonder if a lot of people that still say they are tired after a few months of cpap need to head to bed a bit earlier and get more than just 6-7 hours a night. The past month I have tried to be very religous about going to bed on time etc (except tonite I have tomorrow off).

It could be a worthwhile experiment for people to try (along with weeding out causes of mouthbreathing, mask leaks, and fine tuning titration levels needed)

Thanks again Kathy for a valuable point,

Suzy

I have been using the hose since april - so about 6 months now - and just recently started to feel 'normal' and normal to me is that I make it thru the day and don't even get tired until at night, like I would assume "normal' people do (normal being relative)


and up until now, it was really hard and I was still tired - there are still days, or nights, rather, that I have an off night and don't sleep well but they are maybe once a week - and much better than before - so if you can follow up with your doc and ensure the treatment is correct - and I know it would be nice for a fast fix, but it does take a little time - but really - it is well worth it
hang in there and good luck

I have been using CPAP for 8 years now and I have tried different mask and had 2 sleep study test. Also have had my air adujusted.. I am getting NO relief at all from the CPAP therapy. I wake up feeling exhausted , and I am grumpy as heck I have no energy during the day and can't get nothing done because of being so tired. I feel like I just want to die to make this sleepy tired felling go away. I have memory loss, confusion and concentration problems as well... I am miserable ...

What seems to the problem? Why are you feeling this way? Is your therapy optimized? What is your leak rate?

Are you using software to monitor your therapy? What is your equipment and your pressure settings?

Unregistered user DARCYDOG, posted to a thread that was last posted to on Oct 18, 2006 more than 8 years old.