High stress levels and AHI's. Are they related?

I was working out of town for the past several days when last night I get a call informing me that my daughters boyfriend was tragically killed in a lawnmowing accident. We were all real close to this young man(18). He was a just a fine person and treated my daughter with respect and loved her very much.

I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach and my thoughts were of my daughter and his family. I finally managed to go to bed but my wife called at midnight to talk. I got back to bed about an hour later but today I feel exhausted. I got home and downloaded my card and found out that my average AHI of 2.7 had jumped up to 16.1 last night.

So naturally I am curious if high stress levels before bedtime result in numbers skyrocketing and then feeling miserable the following day. Has anyone experienced this as well?

And please hold up the Rogers family and my daughter in your prayers if you pray. I know they could use it right now.Thanks everyone.
David

AHI/stress correlation could have just been coincidental.

My sympathies to your daughter and Roger's family. What a terrible loss.

My experience is that stress (restless sleep, tossing and turning) make my machine record more apneas.
O.

My heart goes out to you, David. Dealing with death is hard enough. When it is sudden and a young person, that can make it hit very hard. Add to that the particularly tragic nature of the death, and that is a recipe that calls for some serious coping skills to get through some unique stress and emotions on the way to mourning and grieving. I hope your family, the young man's family, and the friends in the communities are all able to help each other through this time.

As for the question you bring up in connection with that circumstance:

I agree with DreamStalker that your AHI could be coincidental. The question of the effects of emotion and stress on breathing during sleep is a complicated one, after all. But I, like ozij, have found that my sleep is greatly affected by stress and emotions. That makes sense to me, since stress and emotions affect hormones, and hormones affect breathing, and hormones affect sleep.

The effect, if that's what it was, may have been a one time thing. Then again, you may have discovered that emotions and stress have a definite effect on YOUR sleep and breathing. If so, that can be useful information to you and you may choose to keep track of how stressed you feel and how emotional your day was along with your AHI numbers. That may help you make some PAP-therapy decisions, and it may also help you make some life-style decisions.

jeff

What a pity! My heart goes out to all of you.

As to your question, I'm fairly confident that high anxiety has a tremendous effect on sleep patterns. Ever notice how stress can affect your breathing even while awake?

My sympathies to you, your family and all those who loved this young man. What a tragic loss.

I am convinced that stress increases apneas. I have no scientific proof but with the stress I was under when my son was hurt, my apneas were up there too!!

My heart goes out to you.

Bearcat42 wrote:I was working out of town for the past several days when last night I get a call informing me that my daughters boyfriend was tragically killed in a lawnmowing accident. We were all real close to this young man(18). He was a just a fine person and treated my daughter with respect and loved her very much.

I felt like I had been kicked in the stomach and my thoughts were of my daughter and his family. I finally managed to go to bed but my wife called at midnight to talk. I got back to bed about an hour later but today I feel exhausted. I got home and downloaded my card and found out that my average AHI of 2.7 had jumped up to 16.1 last night.

So naturally I am curious if high stress levels before bedtime result in numbers skyrocketing and then feeling miserable the following day. Has anyone experienced this as well?

And please hold up the Rogers family and my daughter in your prayers if you pray. I know they could use it right now.Thanks everyone.
David

Firstly, what a sad situation - you have my deepest sympathy & sorrow. I would be equally shattered if that happened among my clan. Everyone of them precious.

Re stress & AHI. I have long accepted a correlation between stress & AHI on the basis that stress is known to impact breathing & what impacts breathing has a high probability of affecting OSA & SA. During periods of high stress, my own therapy has deteriorated. After 5 years of being on therapy that is a given to me.

In one stressful period of attempting to solve what seemed like an impossible IT problem, was getting chest pains esp at night & therapy was nose diving. Actually went to hospital to do a stress ECG & docs gave heart a total clean bill of health & decided the chest pains were from the work stress.

So for me, yes stress can impact breathing which can & is likely to impact SA therapy.

DSM

I felt that I should also mention that changing your breathing affects your stress levels. In general, gentle but deep nasal breathing at about 10 breaths a minute calms the nervous system. The effect can be increased by making the exhalation somewhat longer than the inhalation.

Raj's above post reminded of of Resperate http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/resperate/AN01523
An Israeli invention that uses respiratory rate and music to lower blood pressure.
O.

ozij wrote:Raj's above post reminded of of Resperate http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/resperate/AN01523
An Israeli invention that uses respiratory rate and music to lower blood pressure.
O.

O., I wonder what it would be like to sleep with this device all night? I am guessing it might have a wonderful effect.

rooster wrote:

ozij wrote:Raj's above post reminded of of Resperate http://www.mayoclinic.com/health/resperate/AN01523
An Israeli invention that uses respiratory rate and music to lower blood pressure.
O.

O., I wonder what it would be like to sleep with this device all night? I am guessing it might have a wonderful effect.

That's an interesting thought, Rooster. 15 minutes a day seems enough though; I'd rather spare them from my waking time...
And I wonder if you're supposed to use the machine with or without your cap when you're awake. I've done some more reading -- it's more sound than music... and inhale sound, and exhale sound that guide you slowly down to 10 breaths per minute.

O.

While I am definitely not someone who prays, I am so very sorry to hear of your tragic loss.

I often wonder why we seem to lose so many good souls, and then there are the no-good-niks who seem to breeze by seemingly unscathed. Guess I'm starting to sound Biblical, nonetheless.

My condolences to you and the family.

I wanted to thank everyone for all of the prayers and support. This week has not been a very good one, obviously, and I have noticed a real downturn in my therapy. I suppose the high stress levels I have been under this week have taken a toll on my sleep patterns so I will have to concentrate on slowing my breathing down and clearing my mind so I can sleep better.

Thanks again for the kind words.

I extend my deepest sympathies to the respective families.

With regard to stress and AHI numbers, I have usually found the opposite. When I'm stressed, I sleep lighter and have lower numbers. When I'm not stressed, I'm sleeping deeper (more relaxed) and my numbers tend to rise a bit more.

Den