Sleepless nights -Muscle Twitches, fatigue and overnight pulse ox question

[1102TC]

1102TC,
I am sorry you are going through what you are going through! I have been told when I wake up like I do that these are panic attacks too. Heard it many years so I quit thinking about it. All of this will give anyone anxiety. All I want is to be safe breathing at night and to wake up and able to have energy. I am hoping for that one day and will hope and pray that for you too!

Wow thanks, I will be praying for you too.

I often had high energy wake ups but often I would get out of bed and blow that energy of doing something mundane like washing dishes and then go back to bed. But lately I wake up with a resting pulse of 150 bpm..lots of adrenaline and going out of my mind. Anyways I was in denial that this was anxiety but I am starting to accept it. I only got 2 hours of sleep last night but my wake up was much less intense with me accepting it.

I am already on CPAP therapy and no doubt according to my scores I think my machine can use some adjustment. The CPAP machines can tell you a lot about whats going on. I am not that good at it yet but plenty of helpful people here that can help.

If you are thinking about a sleep study a home study works fine for apneas. However an in house in my opinion is more robust as they monitor brain activity and can help determine different types of sleep disorders. Please keep in mind that I am a newb and I am only going off what my local sleep center advertised.

The muscle twitching is classic anxiety and or adrenaline. I was told by my therapist that they actually they occur as your body relaxes, you become less tense and controlling of the muscles, they are free to twitch because of the stress hormones still in the system. In that way it's a good thing that shows you start to relax. The bad thing is if you don't know this those jerks can give you more anxiety. Often they actually wake you up particularly as you start to fall asleep. In tying to figure out my new symptom of waking up in panic I started recording myself. I found that yeah, at times my leg or arm twitches rather hard throwing the covers up a bit. It helped me realize along with some constructive criticism in my first post that I was looking at thing wrong. I need to chill a bit. Lol what can I say, I am not getting much sleep lately.

Best of luck to you.

[Josiah]

You ought to be on supplementary oxygen while you sleep at least until you correct your low saturation problem. How does your SpO2 run during the day?

[Nevergiveup13]

Josiah,
I just returned from the pulmonologist and that is what he is doing while I wait but I was told it maybe 2-3 days to get O2. I had terrible night again and my BP was up which I usually have normal BP. I seriously am thinking about going to the ER to get O2 to sleep tonight. My O2 is during the day is normal. I also think the doctor is realizing he screwed up not telling me the overnight pulse ox results for 3 months. Everything now is suddenly stat after he listened to my husband tell him how abnormal this is and after assessing my nails closer. They look horrendous with depressions on both thumbs.

I tried to get my insurance to pay for the O2 and because I haven’t had an overnight sleep test, they said no so will have to pay for it out of pocket. I laid down and set my alarm for 30 minutes and put a pulse ox on. After 6 1/2 minutes I woke up and my O2 sats were 83%. The good news is the sleep center is working really hard to fit me in this week.

[kteague]

Any time there's mention of twitches that move the covers at night I have to ask, any chance of having the sleep disorder PLMD - Periodic Limb Movement Disorder?

[Nevergiveup13]

Update so any advice or experience is welcome!

I had a sleep study this week and me with a new internal medicine doctor at a university integrative medicine clinic. She told me that my study came back and I have mild sleep apnea. The way I feel it to me is severe but maybe this will be the answer to my exhaustion and shortness of breath. I just tried to lay down to take a nap and within 5 minutes my pulse ox vibrates to alert me of a drop in O2 down to 86% that lasted 56 seconds-that’s with me getting alerted! She is referring me to a 2nd opinion pulmonologist to rule out an X-ray I had of my lungs showing mild pleural thickening to rule out any problems with that. I meet with a NP sleep medicine specialist on Tuesday. Are there any questions I should ask? Does anyone have mild sleep apnea with severe symptoms like me. I was hoping this was the answer. Thanks.

[Julie]

Maybe your version of 'severe' does not quite match those of some other members here on paper. I appreciate that you feel/felt lousy when not treated, but that's always subjective. It's good that you're doing better and have some answers now though.