Wheres the beef? (Energy)

[cpap'er]

I keep hearing from everyone i talk to about how even after the very first night of using their CPAP they woke up with tons of energy and the feeling of extreme rest and how they slept for hours longer than they normally do.....

Im not exatly a newbie with this treatment i have been on it for a bit....the first night i used the machine for the first time i woke up about the same time i normally do and i felt like i slept good....I didnt wake up, stit up, or go to the bathroom 10 times a night like i was before...i got through the day without falling asleep which was something totally new to me within the past 2 years...but where was the energy everyone talks about.

Mind you i sleep soundly using my CPAP i dont move or shift through the night i dont even get up or wake up through the night anymore...and i feel somewhat rested my AHI is great and my life has changed allowing me to stay awake and do the things i couldnt do before the treatment but the huge blast of energy and drive to want to do things is not there...honestly i could care less if i have the blast of new found energy as long as im getting good sleep and staying awake the next day...

I know there are posts about not feeling rested on here but thats not my issue...i just wanted to see if anyone else is wondering where all the energy people claim to have is hiding...lol

[thewetlizard]

I'm wondering where my energy is also. Because I sure don't have any. Like you I'm not getting up as much to go to the bathroom. I have also have notice my sincus are staying unclog for a longer time.

[Emilia]

I've read enough threads on this forum to know that not everyone gets a blast of energy. However, I have also read several threads and articles on the net that mention the correlation between OSA and thyroid conditions. I wonder if a check up and TSH test might be in order to see if that is off kilter? The thyroid is responsible for metabolism and contributes to energy levels. Also, if you have had many years of OSA and your body had to fight to breathe all night long, your adrenal glands are probably exhausted and need time to recover as well. These are things to mention to your doctor to seek out any other avenues to optimal health and energy!

[cpap'er]

I actually had that checked before i was diagnosed with OSA they thought i may have had a thyroid condition making me tired and drained all the time...it all came back fine and i just had another blood test done about a month ago and everything was perfect all accross the board on everything tested for....believe me im satisfied with the results of my CPAP treatment....Im still waiting to have the energy to jump over the house like some people claim to have after CPAP treatment...lol Nice idea to point that out Emilia i can see that may be a cause especially if you have never been checked for it

Im glad to hear that your treatments is working also wetlizard....well minus the energy bursts of course....lol

[Hose_Head]

I keep hearing from everyone i talk to about how even after the very first night of using their CPAP they woke up with tons of energy and the feeling of extreme rest and how they slept for hours longer than they normally do.....

I suspect that for most of us, discussion of the efficacy of treatment with CPAP with people you know is a little like discussing your sex life. That is, people tend to talk a better game than they actually experience. This effect is much reduced on a forum such as cpaptalk because we are all anonymous.

Personal health is complex and there are MANY reasons for lack of energy and/or poor sleep. Cpap addresses just one of these reasons. While cpap does work well at treating symptoms related to SA, it's unreasonable to expect it to be a miracle cure for everything.

[Emilia]

Not sure if you know the actual numbers on your TSH test or not, but a lot of doctors will tell you it is 'normal' based on old guidelines. The American Thyroid Association follows the new guidelines established by the Endocrinology Association that states the normal range should be between .5 and 2.5. Many labs still will put your results in the 'normal' range at 4 or 5. It is estimated that millions of people could benefit from thyroid hormone therapy at this previously held 'normal' range. When my TSH creeps up to above 3, I have to change my Synthroid levels upward to get into the new normal range. FWIW..... something to think about and check.

[chunkyfrog]

I still believe that a great deal depends on adrenaline levels, but constant high levels will kill you. And, apparently it doesn't take much to affect that. My untreated AHI was only 13, and I was waking up so revved I couldn't get back to sleep, getting up at 5 or six because that's when I woke WITHOUT a headache and didn't want to risk taking a short nap, only to wake with a real screamer. Now, cpap keeps me between .4 and 1.4. I wake up less 'up', but I last the whole day instead of running out of juice at 1:00 PM. I do need to exercise more to gain the energy that comes with a small dose of cardio. Adrenaline IS addictive. I'm slowly weaning myself off of it.

[BlackSpinner]

I keep hearing from everyone i talk to about how even after the very first night of using their CPAP they woke up with tons of energy and the feeling of extreme rest and how they slept for hours longer than they normally do.....

I know there are posts about not feeling rested on here but thats not my issue...i just wanted to see if anyone else is wondering where all the energy people claim to have is hiding...lol

Some times it takes a while to rebuild all that damage done by the low O2 levels. The other thing is that maybe you need to start working out. You probably stopped doing anything much years ago and your body is just in no great shape, I know I am in that boat. Muscle and aerobic ability don't build themselves.

[billbolton]

but the huge blast of energy and drive to want to do things is not there...

xPAP treatment is will address your Sleep Disordered Breathing issues, but is not a silver bullet for everything that ails you.

Cheers,

Bill

[jweeks]

but the huge blast of energy and drive to want to do things is not there...

xPAP treatment is will address your Sleep Disordered Breathing issues, but is not a silver bullet for everything that ails you.

Bill,

That is not fair. OSA can cause a wide variety of other issues. One would think that if you fix the OSA, everything else should get better, too. Who do I call to complain about this?

Actually, I am about 2 years into treatment, and I am finally seeing some of that increase in energy. It took me about a year to get caught up on sleep debt and for my attitude to come back. I have been able to increase my activity level this past year, and now I feel more or less like my old self again. Then again, time erases the memories of just how bad I felt before getting into treatment, so I sometimes don't realize how much better I really feel.

-john-

[frh]

I've only been on CPAP since the end of March. I have owned or have been a corporate officer in 7 businesses in the last 40 years. My current business is almost 20 years old, but has been in a downhill spiral for at least a half-dozen years. I haven't even had the mental clarity to update my website. In the last 4 months I've been trying to figure out the elusive secret to dialing in my therapy so some degree of energy and mental clarity will return.

After turbinate reduction surgery on Monday (two days ago), I was worried about bleeding in the mask. So I asked the nurse to hook me up to an oximeter on the theory the alarm would summon help if I was having a problem. I wound-up on 3 liters of O2 to keep the alarm from going off. My AHI was 29.6 that night. But I felt absolutely great all day (the day after the surgery).

I hooked my wife's back-up oxygen concentrator into my CPAP mask last night at 2-1/2 liters of O2. It's after 10 pm and I have more energy right now than I can remember having after 3 or 4 pm in many years. I just posted about it here:
viewtopic/t54009/Question-for-those-who ... -surg.html

I don't know if supplemental O2 is the magic bullet I have been yearning for. Or even if I am making a mistake by trying it. It's just a coincidence that I had a follow-up appointment with the sleep doc today. (This guy is Board Certified in Neurology, Psychiatry, Sleep Medicine and Electrodiagnostic Medicine.) We talked about the O2. I asked him to set me up with a recording oximeter overnight. Instead he scheduled me for another sleep study.

He knows full well that I used supplemental O2 at home last night. And he did not tell me to stop using it. So I plan to use it again tonight. Hopefully, I will figure out the software for the CMS 50D oximeter tomorrow afternoon, so I can see what is actually happening with it and without it.

[Julie]

And maybe we need to factor in that we're that much older to begin with - is it likely that we'll feel the same as we did 10 yrs ago even if we're breathing better?