...died in his/her sleep...

[archangle]

It wasn't the fall that killed him, it was the sudden stop at the bottom.

It wasn't the smoking that killed him, it was the lung cancer.

It wasn't apnea that killed him, it was the heart attack.

[GumbyCT]

It wasn't the smoking that killed him, it was the lung cancer.

Cancer cures smoking.

[jnk]

. . . It wasn't apnea that killed him, it was the heart attack. . . .

May be somethin' to that one:

. . . patients with obstructive sleep apnea were six times more likely to have had their heart attack between midnight and 6 a.m. than during the rest of the day. In contrast, the patients without sleep apnea were more likely to have had their heart attack between 6 a.m. and noon.

Obstructive sleep apnea "may be a trigger" for heart attacks, write the researchers . . . .

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sl ... rt-attacks

[archangle]

. . . It wasn't apnea that killed him, it was the heart attack. . . .

May be somethin' to that one:

I'm quite serious. I suspect that most of the apnea related deaths are classified as heart attack, stroke, etc. The clear facts in the death usually indicate heart attack, stroke, etc. Apnea increases the risk of these kinds of things, but you can die of them even if you don't have apnea.

[GumbyCT]

. . . It wasn't apnea that killed him, it was the heart attack. . . .

May be somethin' to that one:

. . . patients with obstructive sleep apnea were six times more likely to have had their heart attack between midnight and 6 a.m. than during the rest of the day. In contrast, the patients without sleep apnea were more likely to have had their heart attack between 6 a.m. and noon.

Obstructive sleep apnea "may be a trigger" for heart attacks, write the researchers . . . .

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/sl ... rt-attacks

We have gone full circle and are right back to the Subject of this thread "...died in his/her sleep..."
The ironic thing is that most heart attack ambulance calls come between 5-6AM.

[jnk]

The ironic thing is that most heart attack ambulance calls come between 5-6AM.

I've heard it said that the most dangerous thing we do most days is to get out of bed in the morning. But I agree that the last REM stage can be a killer, even for those without what is normally considered "medically-significant" numbers of upper-airway obstructions, as in significant enough to warrant PAP, especially IF they have significant heart disease.

"Blood coagulation is important in the genesis of what we call thrombi, the blood clots that can block the blood vessels and cut off supply to the heart. When we wake up, platelets, the particles in the blood that make thrombi, are particularly adhesive to the vessels. Usually we have an endogenous system — it's called fibrinolysis — to dissolve the thrombi. But in the morning, the activity of our fibrinolytic system is reduced. So we have a greater tendency to make thrombi that can occlude the coronary vessels. This contributes to further reduction of coronary blood flow. Thus, at the same time that you need more blood flow, you have less.

"All these changes, however, probably are not so harmful in healthy people. But for a person with a plaque in the coronary vessel, if these changes occur at the same time and peak at the same time, the final result is a higher risk of heart attack during that specific window of morning hours.

"Why is the risk also higher during the last part of sleep? Usually, during the night, the cardiovascular system is 'sleeping,' which is characterized by low blood pressure and heart rate. But the last stage of sleep — REM, or rapid eye movement, sleep [when we believe most dreaming occurs] — is a risk period for cardiovascular emergencies because when you dream, you have a dramatic increase of activity of the autonomic nervous system — even more than when you are awake."

http://www.time.com/time/health/article ... 44,00.html

So I have no trouble with the statement that 'PAP therapy, for people with OSA, can keep them from dying in their sleep.' But, when I'm in my hair-splitting mode, I'm just not on board personally 100% with the statement that 'OSA kills people in their sleep.' I get it, and I don't generally argue with it, since it is probably more true than false. BUT, clarity can be a good thing, I believe, in technical discussions of it, to keep that statement from sounding slightly misleading.

And I realize that this thread was not exactly meant to be a technical-hair-splitting discussion.

I guess I kinda hijacked.

Sorry about that, Maxie.

[Maxie]

It's OK jnk. I think that people who have sleep apnea are far more inclined to treat it if they have family who had it and/or know someone who had it. I do think that a lot of the (especially old ones) obituaries that say Mr. Jones died in his sleep are probably more related to sleep apnea than not. When I made the post I had been thinking about reading the "died in his/her sleep" fairly often in older obituaries when autopsies were not done. I don't know what the autopsy said in the case of my friend's wife who died in bed gasping for breath but I do know that at the time my daughter was in nursing school and her textbooks said that no one died from sleep apnea. I'm no longer sure I believe that but when told I had sleep apnea I wasted no time in getting it treated and I've been "compliant" since day one! So which came first, the chicken or the egg?

[jnk]

Thanks for going easy on me, Maxie.

For me, fear of dying may play a small role in my compliance/adherence/success with PAP, but my having experienced the incredible increase in my quality of LIFE, now, is an even more-powerful motivator, in my case. And that is so even though I believe I may have been just a few short steps away from death's nocturnal door before PAP therapy. My numbers: viewtopic.php?f=1&t=35379&p=303637#p303637

[Maxie]

Feeling great is a side effect of CPAP but it sure is wonderful to me!

[GatorLord]

And while we're on this topic...I heard this joke not long ago:

'The apnea victim died peacefully in his sleep'

'His passengers died screaming in terror!'

It's a little gallows humor, but I got a chuckle when I heard it.

[GatorLord]

I've heard it said that the most dangerous thing we do most days is to get out of bed in the morning. But I agree that the last REM stage can be a killer, even for those without what is normally considered "medically-significant" numbers of upper-airway obstructions, as in significant enough to warrant PAP, especially IF they have significant heart disease.

I usually have to get up at least once per night, usually right around the middle of the night, and I'll hit 'Info' and check my numbers and they are almost always really low...like '0.#'.

Then, when I get up after the rest of the night, my AHI will be 2 or 3x what my middle night numbers were. So that 'Last REM' theory is dead-on (pun alert) in my case, since I would have to have around 4 to 6x as many events in the second half to bring my average up that much. Lesson here: DON'T FORGET TO REMASK IF YOU GET UP! The second half is the killer.

[GumbyCT]

I usually have to get up at least once per night, usually right around the middle of the night, and I'll hit 'Info' and check my numbers and they are almost always really low...like '0.#'.

I could be wrong here but I don't think the machine has yet calculated your numbers at that point, so looking is pointless.

[Lizistired]

I usually have to get up at least once per night, usually right around the middle of the night, and I'll hit 'Info' and check my numbers and they are almost always really low...like '0.#'.

I could be wrong here but I don't think the machine has yet calculated your numbers at that point, so looking is pointless.

Gumby, Why would you think that? You get up and turn the machine off and look at the settings. Just like in the morning.
The machine doesn't know you are coming back after you pee. I know, it's late.

[GumbyCT]

I usually have to get up at least once per night, usually right around the middle of the night, and I'll hit 'Info' and check my numbers and they are almost always really low...like '0.#'.

I could be wrong here but I don't think the machine has yet calculated your numbers at that point, so looking is pointless.

Gumby, Why would you think that? You get up and turn the machine off and look at the settings. Just like in the morning.
The machine doesn't know you are coming back after you pee. I know, it's late.

AND it doesn't know that you went to the bathroom and are planning on returning to bed or taking a vacation in another time zone either.

You might be surprised to learn these machines do NOT display realtime data. It is ALL after the fact.

[cherylgrrl]

Ever since I got my diagnosis I wonder about my father. He had a massive heart attack at age 57 and had to retire. Then died after another at age 62. This was back in 1967 and I'm not too sure how many doctors recognized sleep apnea. Because of this, I've always been treated by my doctors as having high potential for heart trouble.

My dad always snored, so I'm guessing there might be a family history of sleep apnea. He died in his sleep in the early morning hours.