Apnea worse when super exhausted?

Hey all, I don't have my equipment yet (getting it this week), but I was curious about something.

I had a very draining Thanksgiving weekend and when I got home yesterday and finally got to bed I was so profoundly exhausted -- moreso than I had been in a long time. But my sleep quality was total garbage. I woke up no less exhausted than I had gone to bed (maybe even a little more). Unfortunately, every time I wake up at night since my diagnosis I have been waking up more thoroughly. So I'm really conscious of every time I wake. And last night, I woke a lot.

So I was wondering...is it possible that the apnea can actually get worse the more exhausted your body is? My thinking is that, if your body is super exhausted it is more likely for the throat to overly-relax and close. Any thoughts? Just curious. (Hopefully in a handful of days this won't be a concern anymore!)

This is a really good question.

Logically it would, but a quick search I did turned up nothing that directly linked the degree of exhaustion with AHI level. I did find an interesting link that may be a starting point for further research.

http://www.webmd.com/sleep-disorders/tc ... -your-risk

Thanks for starting this thread, it will be very interesting to see where it goes.

I have Chronic Fatigue Syndrome. It is very common for me to have terrible sleep when I over do it. I will try to take a nap during the day so I can sleep better at night. Kind of crazy, but it helps.

It came to be expected by me. When I worked day after day on a job that did services when our Baseball team was in town the CPAP would work less well as the stressful days went on. When the team was out of town it worked much better.

Stress and inflammation and I believe therefore OSA treated by a CPAP calibrated when stress was low go together.

I don't know about super exhaustion for physical reasons, but certainly when I have been under a lot of stress my AHI goes up. The weekend was good - not much stress - but having been back at work just one day caused a rise in the AHI. Not much, but enough to make me notice.

OK, I may be the odd one in this thread, but when I am super exhausted (self inflicted - but NOT due to stress), I:

Sleep MUCH better!
My already low AHI is even lower!
My Auto pressure never gets much above the lower limit!
AND even my flow limitations are much less!

It does take me a couple of nights to overcome that extreme exhaustion, but it feels so good I sometimes think I should do it more often. Well, maybe not!

StuUnderPressure wrote:OK, I may be the odd one in this thread, but when I am super exhausted (self inflicted - but NOT due to stress), I:

Sleep MUCH better!
My already low AHI is even lower!
My Auto pressure never gets much above the lower limit!
AND even my flow limitations are much less!

It does take me a couple of nights to overcome that extreme exhaustion, but it feels so good I sometimes think I should do it more often. Well, maybe not!

What do you do to become "super exhausted"?

I'm thinking it may be more likely for a beginner; as learning how to sleep with the mask takes some effort.
It seemed that way when I was still wet behind the ears, but not so much now.

Todzo wrote:What do you do to become "super exhausted"?

Just about anything but sleep - sometimes those things are much more fun than sleeping.

About a month ago on a day trip, I had to leave at 2:00 A.M. just to get there in time to spend most of the day there. I didn't get home until about 11:00 P.M. the same night - so I was awake for 21 hours straight. Never even felt like falling asleep both going & coming back.

Yep, that trip WAS worth it!

Got to bed by midnight but I was awake by 7:00 A.M. the following morning (my usual is 7 Hours of Sleep) - but I was more refreshed than one would think I should be. Slept that well the next night also.

StuUnderPressure wrote:

Todzo wrote:What do you do to become "super exhausted"?

Just about anything but sleep - sometimes those things are much more fun than sleeping.

About a month ago on a day trip, I had to leave at 2:00 A.M. just to get there in time to spend most of the day there. I didn't get home until about 11:00 P.M. the same night - so I was awake for 21 hours straight. Never even felt like falling asleep both going & coming back.

Yep, that trip WAS worth it!

Got to bed by midnight but I was awake by 7:00 A.M. the following morning (my usual is 7 Hours of Sleep) - but I was more refreshed than one would think I should be. Slept that well the next night also.

Sounds like you had some really great memories to consolidate with some good sleep.

This winter I am trying to be at the gym each day and to exercise until I am “good and tired”. I do feel it in my muscles and knees and all. Frankly it feels kind of good even though some pain is involved.

It makes it easy to fall asleep and stay asleep. As well my breathing stability is improved. The only bad things are that inflammation seems to be more (a bit more of a tendency to obstruct) and if there are colds and stuff and I go too far … It is finding a balance.

One thing that occurred to me about Starpilot's original post was that Thanksgiving weekend may contain some food based metabolic challenges to the body.