Is sleep apnea fatique ALWAYS or can it come and go?

[jjlady]

I was just recently diagnosed with severe obstructive sleep apnea and got as far as second test and they gave me a mask but am waiting on referral for the machine and settings.

Anyway, I am curious to know if those who have untreated sleep apnea or before you started treatment if you were ALWAYS tired or noticed any kind of patterns such as more tired certain times a year and/or did you some good days mixed in where you weren't tired. Also did you feel like you slept good and wasn't aware you weren't sleeping well?

My situation is my extreme fatique is more in the summer and the rest of the year, I don't notice it as much and generally feel pretty good. I am wondering if my summertime fatique is just the sleep apnea or something else? Because I was diagnosed with sleep apnea I am curious why the rest of the year I am not so tired?

[chunkyfrog]

An improvement is very likely; however, individual cases do vary.
You may have considerable sleep debt to repay before you really come out of the fog.
I felt some improvement right away, subtle things like no more nightmares,
and not dozing off at my desk and other unfortunate places. The big stuff came later.
After 9 months, I realized I had lost 8 pounds--just due to CPAP, I had to work on the rest--fat is tenacious.
The seasonal pattern of your symptoms may indicate allergies (JMWO) -(just my worthless opinion)
Once you are breathing filtered, humidified air, you may be pleasantly surprised.

[Wonderbeastlett]

Mine wasn't so much seasonal as it was very dependable! I wake up at 8 with my husband and at 10 I would start to nod off. After I made lunch at 1, I would be so tired I would fall asleep and stay asleep until 4:30. I would then make dinner and by 9pm I would start nodding off again. We are in our twenties and we always go to bed around 11:45 and I would sleep though the whole night except to use the restroom.

I've been on cpap therapy for 3 weeks and ,although I have no headaches or brain fog, I am still tired. I still want to take naps. I think everyone goes at this in their own pace and hopefully I will not be tired. You just have to find what works for you and stick with the therapy.

[Stacita]

I never felt fatigued - or alternatively, maybe I always felt fatigued but had been that way for so long it just felt like normal baseline! I only got diagnosed because my partner was disturbed by my snoring and sleep breathing. After a month or so on the CPAP I'm if anything a little more tired, because I'm not back to sleeping through the night yet, but apparently my snoring and weird breathing are better and my sleep data looks great.

Which is to say the whole thing's hugely variable. Maybe the sleep apnea is a year round problem but there's some other thing that gets worse for you in the summer that exacerbates it. Humidity or heat or seasonal allergens causing additional breathing troubles? All that daylight throwing off your circadian rhythm? Change in schedule or activities?

[MelindaJoan]

You could've knocked me over with a feather when I was diagnosed with severe OSA. I rarely felt tired and didn't snore. The only thing that sent me to a sleep lab was a sleepwalking incident where I injured myself. I thought my family doctor might be overdoing it a bit by referring me for a sleep study. Result? Severe OSA, severe sleep fragmentation, and possible PLMD and/or REM behavior disorder. The latter 2 items are still under study and a visit to the neurologist is on the ticket.

No, I didn't feel tired but I can't say I've had a lot of energy the last few years either, and I'd become aware of difficulties in falling asleep and staying asleep. Blamed it on those rotten night sweats! Stress! Anxieties!

I've used my machine now for about a week-and-a-half. I've been getting better at it, have switched masks, but have slept well considering everything there was to get used to. Due to seasonal allergies last night, I had a horrible night, slept little and what little I slept was without my mask on. Guess what? I'm exhausted today.

[Maxie]

I think that fatigue of any kind can come and go and while sleep apnea is a major factor in causing lack of sleep, there can be other minor factors. If you get the sleep apnea under control I would suggest looking at other areas of your life to see what else may be contributing to your fatigue. It's always good to try to look at the big picture and then sort out the parts. As I'm sure you've read on this forum, it does take a while for the CPAP therapy to kick in and take care of your fatigue. For some it happens sooner and others it happens later. Addressing sleep apnea is definitely a patient participation event!

[Sgt_Pepper]

WOW ...
In some ways same song second verse ...

My 'tiredness/fatigue' came and went prior to CPAP and now seems to have come back.

I complained to the doctor I had at the time about going through cycles of fatigue. He tested my thyroid function which at the time was fine. I was runnign a lot at the time and he told me to cut back on my training. I did and it didn't help in the least. i noticed every now and again my wife would nudge me aty night - sometimes several tiems .. sometimes with an elbow . She said I quit breathing and the sounds I made when I quit breathing woke her up. Back to teh doc who didn't want to refer me for a sleep study because I didn't 'fit the physical profile' (I guess that's a misconception among some docs). New doc ... she ordered a sleep study right away .. and i was having 30 some odd apnea events an hour. The scarey part was seeing what a person's heart rate does when they quit breathing at night and their blood oxygen levels drop way low.

That was 4 or 5 years ago. The CPAP helped a lot - lately in my own case it's not the final answer. My sleep doc told me what I was feeling wasn't fatigue but 'excessive daytime sleepiness'. I guess I kinda saw it as 6 of one half a dozen of another .. those in the know differentiate I guess.

If your obstructive apnea was severe, I'd suggest the apnea was always with you and the fatigue came and went. It did with me. I felt fine some of the time. Other times I'd fight to stay awake. According to my wife .. I was doing the gurgling sounds/not breathing during both the energetic and sleepy times. The apnea was always there.

I guess that response sufficiently muddied the waters. I've been extremely compliant with everything every doc has asked me to do and I'm still having this nasty sleepiness right now. The CPAP is doing it's job. It's back to the sleep doc soon as my annual physical said I was very healthy with nothing to account for being tired.

One tremendous bonus benefit from CPAP is I no longer wake up with sore ribs from getting an elbow in the night. Evidently a well placed elbow was very good at restarting my breathing and letting someone else go back to sleep .

[Julie]

Hi - is it possible that the warmer weather plays tricks with your thyroid? Have you been tested for hyper or hypothyroid problems recently?

[Sir NoddinOff]

Hi - is it possible that the warmer weather plays tricks with your thyroid? Have you been tested for hyper or hypothyroid problems recently?

I'd have to agree with Julie. My thyroid goes slightly 'hyper' (according to my thyroid panels) in the summer then returns to normal in the winter months. Whether it's temperature related, diet related, stress related, my doctor doesn't have a clue. Luckily, in the summerI don't feel any more sleepy during daytime hours, therefore my case differs a bit from yours. Some things to focus on might be exercise, diet and stress reduction. Plus, get some thyroid tests done.

[jjlady]

Thanks everyone for replying. I forgot to mention I do have hypothyroidism and this extreme fatique did start about 1 year after I started thyroid meds and that was about 5 years ago, every summer I have been increasing my thyroid dosage but that didn't make sense to me (summer only thing) so this year someone suggested sleep apnea this year and that is where I am at now, I just didn't think I was always tired throughout the year and if I have had sleep apnea all year how was it affecting me? I do have frequent brain fog and can't form a sentence!! (that has been me forever though!!)

[brucifer]

jjlady, my battle with extreme fatigue has been my journey over the past three years. I learned that sleep apnea was only one layer of that complex problem. Other layers affecting my lack of sleep and the resulting fatigue were (1) poor diabetes management, (2) hypothyroidism, and (3) side effects from multiple medications (I was on 11, now only 4). I had to attack these issues one at a time to tease out the root of the problem, and I'm still not entirely there. I have successfully addressed the first three issues, and I do feel better. I'm hoping that CPAP will eventually give me the rest that I need. Time will tell.

Many sleep apnea patients who are on xPAP therapy and who cannot beat fatigue get a Rx for Provigil to augment their xPAP therapy. However, if you have not done so already, you may want to first see if more than just sleep apnea is contributing to your fatigue. Feeling tired all the time is no picnic, so I can empathize with you totally. Best of luck.

[gertrude]

I just didn't think I was always tired throughout the year and if I have had sleep apnea all year how was it affecting me? I do have frequent brain fog and can't form a sentence!! (that has been me forever though!!)

I wasn't sleepy either -- so the typical symptoms of untreated OSA didn't describe me either. But after an initial rough and challenging patch of several months, I've noticed some changes on APAP that suggest lots of other effects. Right away, I stopped getting up as many times in the night to go to the bathroom. (I now know that untreated OSA can cause nocturia through the effects on blood flow when resuming breathing.) And my blood pressure has come down some. But the most significant for how I feel is that my insomnia is now much reduced. I used to wake in the middle of the night and then lie awake for hours several times a week, but now it happens less than once a week. The brain fog is another symptom, as you mention.

Here is a link to a page that discusses some of the less typical symptoms -- often found in women -- of OSA.
http://www.sleepfoundation.org/article/ ... leep-apnea

Of course, you shouldn't ignore that you may have other things going on, as others here have stressed. But OSA seems to affect many body systems and so, even if treating it doesn't solve all your problems, it is an important step.

[Maxie]

Prior to CPAP therapy and for a while afterwards I was taking meds for hyperthyroidism. After being on CPAP I still felt sluggish and so I started looking at my meds. I only had one symptom of hyperthyroidism that was aggravating enough for me to take the meds. After still feeling fatigue on CPAP I investigated stopping the hyperthyroid meds as it appeared I was experiencing hypothyroidism. So now I'm off all thyroid meds and feeling great. Thyroid meds are hard to get just right in my opinion, which probably doesn't account for much.