memory and cognitive relationship with apnea

[SleepyT]

No Sleep,
First off, I'm sorry you've had so much trouble getting a proper diagnosis. The people who are "fit" often end up having a fit with doctors who are clueless. OSA is STILL perceived as a disease only overweight people have. I hope that will change. As to your questions of memory loss and depression....I believe the depression can be treated (mine was)...but there may be blocks of memory you don't recover. Time will tell. I am hopeful your brain (and other major organs) will bounce back completely. Being young is a plus for you. Be gentle with yourself....use all the tools at your disposal...and give it time. You got here over a period of 10 years.....give it at least a couple of years before you measure your success. Best of luck.

T.

[NotSleepingBeauty]

This is so interesting. I also have cognitive and brain fog issues. I have never been able to concentrate for sh*t.

The entire country needs to stop assuming a person's health by looking at body weight. Not all overweight people have OSA and it is not imposible for a slender person to have it. It is also possible for a slender person to be unhealthy, and an overweight person to not have any health issues at all.

I'm sorry to hear that you did not get your diagnosis earlier because of your "normal" BMI. It often works the same way for the overweight. ANYTHING that an overweight person complains about to a doctor is most often met with a "lose weight and it will go away" response.

We need to look at people as individuals not at their BMI range and what is "typical" for it.

/end rant

[lcosborn]

I also have extreme memory and cognitive problems. I ran through every diagnosis humanly possible, including Alzheimer's. I even tracked my blood sugar for awhile thinking it might be diabetes.

I was sure I had ADD, which is how I finally decided to go for a sleep test. I was reading a book on ADD, Driven to distraction by Ned Hallowell. He cited several studies that found a huge percentage of samples of people diagnosed with ADD had sleep disorders. I immediately called my primary care doctor, who agreed a sleep study was a good idea.

I am female, was 41 at the time, with a normal BMI. Sleep apnea just wasn't something that anyone really thought about. But I was so fatigued that I was crawling under my desk at work, pulling over at rest areas to take naps, and sleeping in fragmented cycles.

My time orientation is extremely poor. I can't remember things like how long I've been married, or how long I was in my doctoral program before I got kicked out (I thought it was nine years, and it was really 11). I have serious brain fog and live in a state of vagueness.

Since I got treatment a year ago, there are some small but significant signs of progress. I rarely lose things anymore, and before I chronically lost keys and papers and so forth. My sleep is not fragmented and I take no daytime naps. There is progress, but it is slow and seems small. I sometimes worry I have permanent brain damage of some sort.

I have had clear symptoms of sleep apnea that I can remember since high school, and ADD symptoms going back to first grade. It is likely I've had this all my life.

[SleepingUgly]

Don't forget that it's possible to have OSA *and* another disorder, such as ADHD. They aren't mutually exclusive. Until the sleepiness from OSA is alleviated, it's hard to say how much of the attentional difficulties are due to OSA vs. ADHD (I don't know if my sleepiness ever will be completely alleviated, thanks to the *@#%%&^ aerophagia). Some memory problems in OSA can persist, unfortunately.

It's frustrating and disappointing to not be living the life one imagined. How to turn this life into the best one possible. That is the question...

[NotSleepingBeauty]

I also have extreme memory and cognitive problems. I ran through every diagnosis humanly possible, including Alzheimer's. I even tracked my blood sugar for awhile thinking it might be diabetes.

I was sure I had ADD, which is how I finally decided to go for a sleep test. I was reading a book on ADD, Driven to distraction by Ned Hallowell. He cited several studies that found a huge percentage of samples of people diagnosed with ADD had sleep disorders. I immediately called my primary care doctor, who agreed a sleep study was a good idea.

I am female, was 41 at the time, with a normal BMI. Sleep apnea just wasn't something that anyone really thought about. But I was so fatigued that I was crawling under my desk at work, pulling over at rest areas to take naps, and sleeping in fragmented cycles.

My time orientation is extremely poor. I can't remember things like how long I've been married, or how long I was in my doctoral program before I got kicked out (I thought it was nine years, and it was really 11). I have serious brain fog and live in a state of vagueness.

Since I got treatment a year ago, there are some small but significant signs of progress. I rarely lose things anymore, and before I chronically lost keys and papers and so forth. My sleep is not fragmented and I take no daytime naps. There is progress, but it is slow and seems small. I sometimes worry I have permanent brain damage of some sort.

I have had clear symptoms of sleep apnea that I can remember since high school, and ADD symptoms going back to first grade. It is likely I've had this all my life.

I also read driven to distraction at the suggestion of a therapist. I saw a lot of myself in that book. I am having the same memory issues you are having. I think that things happened last year when it was reallty 5 years ago. Poor performance at work, etc. I hope we both overcome this.
NSB