Sleep Apnea and Muscle Twitching, Cramps, Fibromyalgia

[Huh?]

Contrary to what you said about atypical, you do have many symptoms of sleep apnea.

Make sure to have your iron levels checked (serum ferritin). With all the symptoms you have, you need to get the level up to 175 and see if anything improves.

[Lazer1234]

The symptoms I do have: chronic fatigue, foggy head (especially in morning), irritable, depression, anxiety

also, and the reason why I'm posting...

I have a lot of neuro-muscular symptoms (for 2 years now) the predominant symptoms being: muscle twitching (every day- more often in the evening), muscle cramps and stiffness, muscle pain, achy joints (occasional), exercise intolerance (causes muscle twitches and cramps to increase), insomnia (this started around the same time as the muscle twitches), nerve sensations like numbness and tingling in feet & extremities, occasional nerve pain, and a host of smaller intermittant symptoms. Lately I've started getting a little chest pain right over my heart, and the sensation of difficulty breathing but this doesn't last and as soon as I get my mind off of it it goes away. Essentially I feel stiff and achy most of the day. I notice the muscle twitches and cramps increase with physical activity (unless I'm very careful and stretch extensively) and generally increase in the evening and when I'm lying down to sleep and when I wake up in the morning.

Yub Yub

Have you considered that you may have neuro-Lyme disease, or some other infection, as Bartonella?

[musculus]

Hello all,

I'm new on here. I recently had a sleep study conducted and was initially told I had an AHI > 15. I was put on a CPAP- full facial mask only 2 hours into the study but couldn't sleep with it on. I'm waiting for the doctor to read the study and have me come back in to be fitted for a mask + machine.

I have none of the typical sleep apnea triggers: I'm young- 24 years old, athletic, non-drinker, fairly good diet. I've been told I only snore occasionally. Never have woken up short of breath/heart racing, no sleepiness during the day. Never have been told I struggle to breathe while sleeping. In fact the sleep study doc after listening to my symptoms told me and I quote, "You probably don't have sleep apnea but we'll run the test anyways..." It appears I may be one of those atypical cases.

The symptoms I do have: chronic fatigue, foggy head (especially in morning), irritable, depression, anxiety

also, and the reason why I'm posting...

I have a lot of neuro-muscular symptoms (for 2 years now) the predominant symptoms being: muscle twitching (every day- more often in the evening), muscle cramps and stiffness, muscle pain, achy joints (occasional), exercise intolerance (causes muscle twitches and cramps to increase), insomnia (this started around the same time as the muscle twitches), nerve sensations like numbness and tingling in feet & extremities, occasional nerve pain, and a host of smaller intermittant symptoms. Lately I've started getting a little chest pain right over my heart, and the sensation of difficulty breathing but this doesn't last and as soon as I get my mind off of it it goes away. Essentially I feel stiff and achy most of the day. I notice the muscle twitches and cramps increase with physical activity (unless I'm very careful and stretch extensively) and generally increase in the evening and when I'm lying down to sleep and when I wake up in the morning.

I have seen my primary care doctor for these symptoms probably over a dozen times. I've seen two rheumatologists, a neurologist (I'm going back to see another neuro doc in two weeks), endocrinologists. I've had tons of blood work done, nerve conduction test on lower legs for the muscle cramps, but each time everything comes back normal. I've simply been dealing with these sypmtoms for the last 2 years. I take 15mg of Elavil daily for pain and to help with the insomnia and flexeril to relax the muscles but these are really no more than band-aids as I feel very tired and awful every day.

After doing research on-and-off for the last two years I've narrowed down what I think could be causing the symptoms. Low Testosterone, Cervical injury/degradation, Sleep Apnea, Neurological Disease like ALS or Multiple Sclerosis, Gluten-Dairy/Food intolerance (Leaky Gut syndrome), or some combination of all the above.

I know now that I have sleep apnea- despite the fact I don't have a typical presentation of symptoms. I have found some medical articles identifying sleep apnea as potential trigger and cause for muscle twitching and cramps.

I also know that sleep disorders and fibromyalgia, benign fasiculation syndrome, cramp fasiculation syndrome all have a strong connection. So I wanted to present to the forum members here a question- (I apologize in advance if this has been asked/covered before on here)

Has anyone seen a positive improvement in their neuromuscluar/fibromyalgia symptoms (muscle twitching, muscle cramps, muscle pain, muscle stiffness, joint pain, exercise intolerance, peripheral neuropathy, weird nerve sensations, etc.) by treating Only their sleep apnea? What were your symptoms, how long did you have them, what treatments did you try before, and how has treating your sleep apnea helped with your symptoms? Have you seen a complete remission of symptoms, a 50% reduction of symptoms, etc? Lastly, how long did it take being on the CPAP to start seeing positive results?

Hopefully someone on here can help! I appreciate any feedback. I'm simply trying to find a correlation between sleep apnea and neuro-muscular symptoms for my own personal curiosity. If it helped you with your symptoms it might help me.

Thanks,

Yub Yub

I had similar muscle symptom (twitching, pain, etc) as well. Poor sleep and low oxygen saturations can cause a lot of systemic problems.

[Yub Yub]

The symptoms I do have: chronic fatigue, foggy head (especially in morning), irritable, depression, anxiety

also, and the reason why I'm posting...

I have a lot of neuro-muscular symptoms (for 2 years now) the predominant symptoms being: muscle twitching (every day- more often in the evening), muscle cramps and stiffness, muscle pain, achy joints (occasional), exercise intolerance (causes muscle twitches and cramps to increase), insomnia (this started around the same time as the muscle twitches), nerve sensations like numbness and tingling in feet & extremities, occasional nerve pain, and a host of smaller intermittant symptoms. Lately I've started getting a little chest pain right over my heart, and the sensation of difficulty breathing but this doesn't last and as soon as I get my mind off of it it goes away. Essentially I feel stiff and achy most of the day. I notice the muscle twitches and cramps increase with physical activity (unless I'm very careful and stretch extensively) and generally increase in the evening and when I'm lying down to sleep and when I wake up in the morning.

Yub Yub

Have you considered that you may have neuro-Lyme disease, or some other infection, as Bartonella?

Hi Lazer1234,

I went to see a rheumatologist about 1 yr ago and requested she check for Lyme's disease- results came back negative. I hadn't heard about Bartonella though.

[Yub Yub]

Hello all,

I'm new on here. I recently had a sleep study conducted and was initially told I had an AHI > 15. I was put on a CPAP- full facial mask only 2 hours into the study but couldn't sleep with it on. I'm waiting for the doctor to read the study and have me come back in to be fitted for a mask + machine.

I have none of the typical sleep apnea triggers: I'm young- 24 years old, athletic, non-drinker, fairly good diet. I've been told I only snore occasionally. Never have woken up short of breath/heart racing, no sleepiness during the day. Never have been told I struggle to breathe while sleeping. In fact the sleep study doc after listening to my symptoms told me and I quote, "You probably don't have sleep apnea but we'll run the test anyways..." It appears I may be one of those atypical cases.

The symptoms I do have: chronic fatigue, foggy head (especially in morning), irritable, depression, anxiety

also, and the reason why I'm posting...

I have a lot of neuro-muscular symptoms (for 2 years now) the predominant symptoms being: muscle twitching (every day- more often in the evening), muscle cramps and stiffness, muscle pain, achy joints (occasional), exercise intolerance (causes muscle twitches and cramps to increase), insomnia (this started around the same time as the muscle twitches), nerve sensations like numbness and tingling in feet & extremities, occasional nerve pain, and a host of smaller intermittant symptoms. Lately I've started getting a little chest pain right over my heart, and the sensation of difficulty breathing but this doesn't last and as soon as I get my mind off of it it goes away. Essentially I feel stiff and achy most of the day. I notice the muscle twitches and cramps increase with physical activity (unless I'm very careful and stretch extensively) and generally increase in the evening and when I'm lying down to sleep and when I wake up in the morning.

I have seen my primary care doctor for these symptoms probably over a dozen times. I've seen two rheumatologists, a neurologist (I'm going back to see another neuro doc in two weeks), endocrinologists. I've had tons of blood work done, nerve conduction test on lower legs for the muscle cramps, but each time everything comes back normal. I've simply been dealing with these sypmtoms for the last 2 years. I take 15mg of Elavil daily for pain and to help with the insomnia and flexeril to relax the muscles but these are really no more than band-aids as I feel very tired and awful every day.

After doing research on-and-off for the last two years I've narrowed down what I think could be causing the symptoms. Low Testosterone, Cervical injury/degradation, Sleep Apnea, Neurological Disease like ALS or Multiple Sclerosis, Gluten-Dairy/Food intolerance (Leaky Gut syndrome), or some combination of all the above.

I know now that I have sleep apnea- despite the fact I don't have a typical presentation of symptoms. I have found some medical articles identifying sleep apnea as potential trigger and cause for muscle twitching and cramps.

I also know that sleep disorders and fibromyalgia, benign fasiculation syndrome, cramp fasiculation syndrome all have a strong connection. So I wanted to present to the forum members here a question- (I apologize in advance if this has been asked/covered before on here)

Has anyone seen a positive improvement in their neuromuscluar/fibromyalgia symptoms (muscle twitching, muscle cramps, muscle pain, muscle stiffness, joint pain, exercise intolerance, peripheral neuropathy, weird nerve sensations, etc.) by treating Only their sleep apnea? What were your symptoms, how long did you have them, what treatments did you try before, and how has treating your sleep apnea helped with your symptoms? Have you seen a complete remission of symptoms, a 50% reduction of symptoms, etc? Lastly, how long did it take being on the CPAP to start seeing positive results?

Hopefully someone on here can help! I appreciate any feedback. I'm simply trying to find a correlation between sleep apnea and neuro-muscular symptoms for my own personal curiosity. If it helped you with your symptoms it might help me.

Thanks,

Yub Yub

I had similar muscle symptom (twitching, pain, etc) as well. Poor sleep and low oxygen saturations can cause a lot of systemic problems.

Hi Musculus,

Sounds like we're in the same boat. Did you notice any improvement in your muscle twitching when you got on a CPAP?

[Yub Yub]

Thanks Janice. Sorry Cpap hasn't helped you. I've heard making radical changes to diet like going gluten and dairy free and all processed foods people have cured their fibro. I'm planning on doing this in the next few months to see if it helps.

You have some medical studies about that to cite?

Typical example

the fact is there's little scientific evidence to support any single eating plan as a way to deal with fibromyalgia. Nevertheless, a trip around the Internet will show that dietary approaches to fibromyalgia abound.

because the Internet is such a wealth of accurate clinical proven information.

Krevlin,

You're absolutely right, when it comes to gleaming info from the internet, it's wise to take everything one reads with a grain of salt. No medical studies to cite. Simply anecdotal evidence I've seen and heard from individuals on the Fibro and Benign Fasciculation Syndrome forums. I've done enough research to know that Fibro and other syndromes are usually multi-faceted, no one cause can be attributed to the triggers, But there are stories of individuals completely curing or reducing the severity of their symptoms 80-90% by making radical diet changes. I'm hoping in my case a lot of the neuromuscular symptoms are being caused by the sleep apnea but if it turns out treating the sleep apnea does nothing to reduce my symptoms my next logical step would be to look at my diet and see if by eliminating all the typical inflammatory foods I see any positive results.

[musculus]

Hello all,

I'm new on here. I recently had a sleep study conducted and was initially told I had an AHI > 15. I was put on a CPAP- full facial mask only 2 hours into the study but couldn't sleep with it on. I'm waiting for the doctor to read the study and have me come back in to be fitted for a mask + machine.

I have none of the typical sleep apnea triggers: I'm young- 24 years old, athletic, non-drinker, fairly good diet. I've been told I only snore occasionally. Never have woken up short of breath/heart racing, no sleepiness during the day. Never have been told I struggle to breathe while sleeping. In fact the sleep study doc after listening to my symptoms told me and I quote, "You probably don't have sleep apnea but we'll run the test anyways..." It appears I may be one of those atypical cases.

The symptoms I do have: chronic fatigue, foggy head (especially in morning), irritable, depression, anxiety

also, and the reason why I'm posting...

I have a lot of neuro-muscular symptoms (for 2 years now) the predominant symptoms being: muscle twitching (every day- more often in the evening), muscle cramps and stiffness, muscle pain, achy joints (occasional), exercise intolerance (causes muscle twitches and cramps to increase), insomnia (this started around the same time as the muscle twitches), nerve sensations like numbness and tingling in feet & extremities, occasional nerve pain, and a host of smaller intermittant symptoms. Lately I've started getting a little chest pain right over my heart, and the sensation of difficulty breathing but this doesn't last and as soon as I get my mind off of it it goes away. Essentially I feel stiff and achy most of the day. I notice the muscle twitches and cramps increase with physical activity (unless I'm very careful and stretch extensively) and generally increase in the evening and when I'm lying down to sleep and when I wake up in the morning.

I have seen my primary care doctor for these symptoms probably over a dozen times. I've seen two rheumatologists, a neurologist (I'm going back to see another neuro doc in two weeks), endocrinologists. I've had tons of blood work done, nerve conduction test on lower legs for the muscle cramps, but each time everything comes back normal. I've simply been dealing with these sypmtoms for the last 2 years. I take 15mg of Elavil daily for pain and to help with the insomnia and flexeril to relax the muscles but these are really no more than band-aids as I feel very tired and awful every day.

After doing research on-and-off for the last two years I've narrowed down what I think could be causing the symptoms. Low Testosterone, Cervical injury/degradation, Sleep Apnea, Neurological Disease like ALS or Multiple Sclerosis, Gluten-Dairy/Food intolerance (Leaky Gut syndrome), or some combination of all the above.

I know now that I have sleep apnea- despite the fact I don't have a typical presentation of symptoms. I have found some medical articles identifying sleep apnea as potential trigger and cause for muscle twitching and cramps.

I also know that sleep disorders and fibromyalgia, benign fasiculation syndrome, cramp fasiculation syndrome all have a strong connection. So I wanted to present to the forum members here a question- (I apologize in advance if this has been asked/covered before on here)

Has anyone seen a positive improvement in their neuromuscluar/fibromyalgia symptoms (muscle twitching, muscle cramps, muscle pain, muscle stiffness, joint pain, exercise intolerance, peripheral neuropathy, weird nerve sensations, etc.) by treating Only their sleep apnea? What were your symptoms, how long did you have them, what treatments did you try before, and how has treating your sleep apnea helped with your symptoms? Have you seen a complete remission of symptoms, a 50% reduction of symptoms, etc? Lastly, how long did it take being on the CPAP to start seeing positive results?

Hopefully someone on here can help! I appreciate any feedback. I'm simply trying to find a correlation between sleep apnea and neuro-muscular symptoms for my own personal curiosity. If it helped you with your symptoms it might help me.

Thanks,

Yub Yub

I had similar muscle symptom (twitching, pain, etc) as well. Poor sleep and low oxygen saturations can cause a lot of systemic problems.

Hi Musculus,

Sounds like we're in the same boat. Did you notice any improvement in your muscle twitching when you got on a CPAP?

Muscle pain and twitching gone after CPAP therapy. However, sleep quality is still not good yet.

[Captain_Midnight]

...



I have none of the typical sleep apnea triggers: I'm young- 24 years old, athletic, non-drinker, fairly good diet. I've been told I only snore occasionally. Never have woken up short of breath/heart racing, no sleepiness during the day. Never have been told I struggle to breathe while sleeping. In fact the sleep study doc after listening to my symptoms told me and I quote, "You probably don't have sleep apnea but we'll run the test anyways..." It appears I may be one of those atypical cases.

The symptoms I do have: chronic fatigue, foggy head (especially in morning), irritable, depression, anxiety

Yub Yub

My pulmonologist tells me that I've had OSA since childhood (and that explains a lot of issues during my lifetime). Since I'm of normal weight, I have had previous docs tell me that OSA was extremely unlikely (they will eventually learn). Apneics of normal weight are more likely to be underdiagnosed, one strongly suspects.

Your symptoms are similar to many that folks self describe here at this fine forum. Yours are not unusual. That you are of normal weight and have OSA is not unusual. That you had difficulty adapting to the mask is almost typical. (When I first put it on, I thought it could never, ever work for me. A few weeks later, it was nearly second nature.)

Over the years, many OSA patients (I never use the term "victim") have had success overcoming the symptoms you mention. It helps to have your xpap setup provide daily therapy feedback data (pressure vs events, and etc), and also to have the setup optimized to use the correct pressure provide maximum therapy. This can be different from the titrated pressure; and it can change.

I'm not a physician, and nobody should ever take recommendations about supplements from someone over the internet from someone that they have never met. That said, do consider that OSA causes local and systemic inflammation, and inflammation can lead to a host of issues, including neuro. I happen to take fish oil (fairly agressively), vitamin D3, Magnesium, multi, and a few other odds and ends, and I think it helps me. You might check with your health professional about this, or at least do some extensive online reading.

As far as gluten free, I kind of support that, but consider grain-free (Wm Davis' new book, Wheat Belly Total Health) offers some useful insight.
For leaky gut, you might also consider reading about probiotics.


Yub Yub

After doing research on-and-off for the last two years I've narrowed down what I think could be causing the symptoms. Low Testosterone, Cervical injury/degradation, Sleep Apnea, Neurological Disease like ALS or Multiple Sclerosis, Gluten-Dairy/Food intolerance (Leaky Gut syndrome), or some combination of all the above.

Yub Yub

Consider starting with the simple approach first. If conscientiously applied xpap therapy and carefully chosen supplements can help your symptoms, it might be a prudent path to begin right here.


Good luck to you.

[Yub Yub]

...


.


Good luck to you.

Thank you Sir for your response. I appreciate the info you provided. I think saying my presentation of symptoms as being atypical was a little presumptuous, as now I'm learning there are lot of people on this site that don't fit the typical bill for sleep apnea. I like the advice you gave, I'll take it to heart.

[gary1001]

Your situation is something I can relate to - once fit and active ended up in a wheelchair, heart infection and 20kg underweight. 9 months later I'm walking about 5km a day and started mountain biking again (all be it very short/flat runs). I dont believe there is simple answer however you might find some food for thought in terms of the functional medicine approach described by Chris Kresser: http://chriskresser.com/chronic-fatigue ... e-symptoms

I personally have found huge benefit in adopting the "Paleo" based diet described by Dr Terry Wahls. She is currently conducting clinical trials to address autoimmune conditions like MS - its really fascinating stuff.
http://terrywahls.com/about/about-terry-wahls/

I found monitoring your sleep objectively is important. Understanding how all changes impact sleep such as raising the head of the bed, neck support, melatonin,etc. Logging them and building a routine that works best. One key with fibro pain is to find a bed and sleeping position that reduces pain. Softer is better (for me anyway) and I found natural latex worked best.

Good luck.

[archangle]

It's important to get a fully data capable CPAP machine. Without one of those, neither you nor your doctor can tell whether your therapy is eliminating the apnea.

Check the "useful links" in my signature line below for help on getting the right machine.

[Pulpfriction01]

Weird. I'm 26 years old and have had sleep apnea pretty much my entire life because i would go on boy scout camps when i was like 9 and people told me i stopped breathing at night back then.

I became a police officer at 22. I work 9 pm to 7 am in a big city. That's when my twitching began. It then graduated to twitching and cramping. I saw a nero. Brain & spine mri's, Nerve conducive study, emg, blood work, eeg all normal by an excellent neurologist. Was diagnosed with Benign Fasciculation syndrome.

I had no more energy. I dont know if it is organic (muscular dystrophy runs in my family), sleep schedule (sometimes i dont sleep at all), or mental (cutting people down from ropes, seeing many suicides, murders, traffic deaths).

Started gaining weight. Saw a doc, who perscribed phentermine for weight loss and energy. About Sept 1, 2015, a week and a half after starting the medicine, my body went nuts.

Stabbing migraines and brain fog, turned into trigeminal neuralgia, began experiencing periods of breathlessness, loss of coordination in hands and feet, shooting nerve pain everywhere, waking up many times a night gasping for air. Stopped the phentermine immediately. A month and a half and many doctors later, the migraines and TN have gone away. Everything else remained the same but with the addition of the muscles in my face, arms, and legs have developed a crawling feeling that comes and goes for periods through the day (usually worse in the morning and night)

both my gp and neuro think it's either severe chronic sleep apnea w/sleep deprivation or the onset of myotonic muscular dystrophy. The neuro said there is nothing they can do for MMD, so he suggested we try to resolve the sleep apnea and see any effects it has. The neuro only did an exam and because the rest of my neuro tests were less than two years old, he didn't reorder new. Exam came back mostly normal except my left calf was slightly smaller than my right, but he said not enough to be concerned about right now. The neuro explained that sleep apnea, sleep deprivation, and an amphetamine can cause the brain to experience crazy neuro stuff.

When they said sleep apnea was a possible cause, I thought they were high. I know many people have it much worse, but that experience only makes me appreciate their struggle so much more.

long story aside, since February, how has your symptoms changed after cpap? Has anybody experienced the weird flare up like mine that ended up just being sleep apnea?

[Julie]

I think you have some familial and possible emotional problems that need further attention... there may be a few members here who've had the odd symptom on Cpap that sounds like one of yours, but your whole description is certainly not typical at all of routine Cpap. You could look into a condition called Restless Legs Syndrome (RLS) that many do have and that there is medication for, though the meds can come with their own effects. But I really think you need another once over by (another?) neurologist, if only to rule out potential dystrophy or else a psychiatric eval. to be sure the 'potential' awareness isn't making you so anxious you have 'symptoms' etc. that aren't actually physiologic in origin.

[Sonnyboy]

Re: both my gp and neuro think it's either severe chronic sleep apnea w/sleep deprivation or the onset of myotonic muscular dystrophy.

Sounds like you need to consider having a sleep study as part of your work-up.

[Pulpfriction01]

I have not started cpap yet. I have a sleep study scheduled for 10/26 to confirm the sleep apnea. If the Cpap doesn't help, then it is off to mayo. Otherwise I have seen two different neuros.