I have severe sleep apnea but I'm not tired, anyone else?

drivers99 · Post by **drivers99** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 4:44 pm

Here's something I was wondering about. I have severe sleep apnea (stop breathing 72 times per hour) and yet I have plenty of dreams and I don't think I am very tired most of the time. What's up with that? Did anyone else have the same observation before they started treatment? (I have a CPAP but haven't been able to use it yet.)

Julie · Post by **Julie** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:00 pm

Yes, that's what happened to me... I went for a study because my husband told me I stopped breathing, etc. overnight, but I wasn't aware of a problem for a long time, but found if I took afternoon naps I dreamed like crazy (tho' not overnight ...?). It was only later on (many months but prior to Cpap) that I started to feel it, and then after going on Apap (right off the bat - nice DME) I became very aware of sleepiness when I didn't use the machine, or a mask didn't fit, etc. I'm glad you wrote in because I was beginning to think I was strange, but you may just be in the early stages (sorry!).

Bearded_One · Post by **Bearded_One** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:13 pm

There is a stage in sleep apnea where you are woke up during dream states which allows you to be more aware of dreams.

Guest · Post by **Guest** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 5:35 pm

I didn't think I was that bad either.

I am a very driven person, and I just kept pushing and pushing myself through my very full schedule. I think I just gradually got used to being tired and accepted it, convincing myself that it really wasn't too bad, I was getting older, and coffee helped a lot.

Once I got the machine, I noticed how much later I could stay up and how much more I felt like doing. Not forced myself to do, but actually FELT like I wanted to do.

Then I spent my first night without the machine after being 100% compliant for 8 months. It was horrible. I felt like *&^&% the next day.

That's the sneaky part of this disorder. I think it is so gradual for some people that you are just not aware of what is missing.

I hope you will start your CPAP usage and see how great you really can and should be feeling!

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 6:48 pm

I wasn't really tired, I did have problems staying awake while driving. As long as I was working or movine I stayed awake fine. I found out about Apnea after heart failure, it would have paid to have found it sooner. Jim

Wulfman... · Post by **Wulfman...** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:03 pm

drivers99 wrote:Here's something I was wondering about. I have severe sleep apnea (stop breathing 72 times per hour) and yet I have plenty of dreams and I don't think I am very tired most of the time. What's up with that? Did anyone else have the same observation before they started treatment? (I have a CPAP but haven't been able to use it yet.)

You'd better get to using that thing or you're gonna have to change your moniker to "drives-no-more". If you'd have an accident and they found out you weren't compliant with your therapy.....you'd be in deep do-do.
This ain't no joke and it's nothing to brag about. If they caught it before it does further damage to your system, consider yourself lucky. Got high blood pressure of type 2 diabetes? Get up to go to the bathroom during the night? Gained any weight? Other physical ailments? Aches or pains? It'll eventually catch up.

I had dreams. I had no problems driving......just couldn't stay awake in front of a computer screen or TV after an hour or two.....and that started out as "occasional" and gradually increased in severity over a period of about three years.

Go for it......it isn't going to get better by ignoring the therapy

Den

shippy · Post by **shippy** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:12 pm

You'd better get to using that thing or you're gonna have to change your moniker to "drives-no-more". If you'd have an accident and they found out you weren't compliant with your therapy.....you'd be in deep do-do.

Go for it......it isn't going to get better by ignoring the therapy

Den

Amen Brother

Dale

Goofproof · Post by **Goofproof** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:13 pm

It almost sound like the dianosis, of Severe Sleep Apnea, came with a side order of De-Nile! Jim

Sergey45 · Post by **Sergey45** » Wed Sep 12, 2007 7:19 pm

I think all of the observations here are correct. It (SA) is coming upon you so gradually and slowly conquering every inch of your body that basically don’t understand what is happening to you.

papoose · Post by **papoose** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 8:46 am

I agree with Wulfman, Goofproof, and others who may not have complained about tiredness, but were affected in perhaps more serious ways. After I was diagnosed -- and my doctor couldn't believe it -- he sent me to an ENT doctor who identified anatomical abnormalities as the root cause of my apnea. (Not weight or neck size, but an airway and throat poorly designed for breathing.) The ENT doctor said I probably had apnea my whole life. That's 57 years.

I didn't think I was tired. I just thought I wasn't a "morning person." I've always struggled to get out of bed, and I've never been cheerful in the morning.

I also don't have the typical complications. My blood pressure is on the low side. Blood sugars are low. My HDL (good) cholesterol outnumbers the bad! My doctor said I'd live to be 100...if only I stopped drinking. (Strange, but I average about 2 beers a year, and maybe 2 glasses of wine a month, and nothing else.) Every doctor I saw pegged me as a closet alcoholic, because of my constantly elevated liver enzymes. Nobody suspected that sleep apnea was killing my liver, until after diagnosis.

Apnea affects people in many different ways: some obvious, some not. And as long as it goes untreated, your body ages faster that it should. If you're anything like me, you don't know what it feels like to be healthy.

Snoredog · Post by **Snoredog** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 9:18 am

I would be interested in seeing what your sleep architecture looked like from your sleep study.

What did your oxygen levels do during the study?

What made up those 72 events per hour and which part of your sleep architecture was impacted by it?

Below is what Normal should be depending on age, what did yours look like?

Normal Sleep Architecture:
Stage1: 5%
Stage2: 50%
Stage3: 10%
Stage4: 10%
Stage REM: 25%

tuna · Post by **tuna** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 11:14 am

How many persons with undiagnosed OSA had such vivid dreams that they caused personal injurey to them selves? I broke my arm at the ball joint and had dove head first out a window, because I thought my dreams were so vivid and real

AdmiralCougar · Post by **AdmiralCougar** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:16 pm

I hadn't hurt myself, but I've woken up on more than one occasion hitting my husband because I thought he was doing something wrong or was someone else. I've sure gotten in some good slugs... I can't really remember the dreams now, but when I mentioned them my mom said I must of been getting back at him cause he has a tendency of elbowing, kneeing and hitting me when he tosses and turns, and it's usually in the face (which can be especially bad now when I'm waring the mask...) It's funny cause he never remembers afterwards he even usually wakes up and apologizes profusely but in the morning has no recollection. I'm still trying to convince him he needs a sleep study we rivaled one another with our snoring... and he's almost moves around the bed as much as I do or did. I have to regularly wake him up enough to go back to his side because he's pushing me off the bed.

Christy

msheda · Post by **msheda** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:31 pm

Well, married couples have a tendency to wrestle in bed, it's just that they are usually awake when this occurs...

drivers99 · Post by **drivers99** » Thu Sep 13, 2007 12:32 pm

I guess I didn't make it clear, I am definitely trying to be able to use the CPAP, I have some things that I'm trying and my technician is working with me. Monday I'm going to get pillows to try. Also, I do have lots of other problems that correlate with sleep apnea (high blood pressure, etc.) and I think I will see that I am tired but I'm just used to it.

Edit: In answer to the question. I didn't notice what the architecture was. But he did show me how my oxygen level was going down during each event.

I have severe sleep apnea but I'm not tired, anyone else?

I have severe sleep apnea but I'm not tired, anyone else?

Re: I have severe sleep apnea but I'm not tired, anyone else

Re: I have severe sleep apnea but I'm not tired, anyone else

Not Tired?