Symptoms...Not so much?

When I got my first sleep study, ten years ago, it was because my wife heard my breathing stopping at night. She had noticed this for years, and would sometimes nudge me to get me going again.

At a routine visit to my doctor, he asked me how my sleep was, I said fine, I guess, but mentioned what my wife had said. The doctor suggested a sleep study. The study showed AHI of 42, considered severe. I started CPAP therapy shortly after.

The odd thing, to me, is I had no particular symptoms. No headaches, no daytime drowsiness. And when I started on CPAP, after the titration study, I didn't feel much different.

Now I have complex apnea. I'm getting an ASV device tomorrow. My AHI lately has been around 10. Last night, for whatever reason, it was 18. I felt fine today. On a "bad day" I feel a little "hungover"--like my eyes and ears are over-sensitive, and I don't have much energy. That's the extent of my subjective symptoms, and that's only on the worst days.

Is it common to have apnea with so few symptoms?

I was the same way, except had deep 02 desats, and I wonder what yours have been like - any idea?

Julie wrote:I was the same way, except had deep 02 desats, and I wonder what yours have been like - any idea?

I have no idea. How would I find out?

I'm guessin' that you're young in years ? I had apnea (untreated) back in my twenties and never felt it at all. The symptoms didn't arise for me until I was in my mid 40's or so. Apnea sucks. Good luck in your therapy.

tmoody wrote:

Julie wrote:I was the same way, except had deep 02 desats, and I wonder what yours have been like - any idea?

I have no idea. How would I find out?

This thing is an inexpensive way to see what your 02 levels are while asleep.

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B ... ge_o04_s00

Gasper62 wrote:I'm guessin' that you're young in years ? I had apnea (untreated) back in my twenties and never felt it at all. The symptoms didn't arise for me until I was in my mid 40's or so. Apnea sucks. Good luck in your therapy.

If only! I'm 62, diagnosed at 52. Who knows how long I had it before that!

Gasper62 wrote:
This thing is an inexpensive way to see what your 02 levels are while asleep.

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B ... ge_o04_s00

Interesting. I wonder how low it goes.

The very idea of complex/central apnea boggles my mind.

tmoody wrote:

Gasper62 wrote:
This thing is an inexpensive way to see what your 02 levels are while asleep.

http://smile.amazon.com/gp/product/B00B ... ge_o04_s00

Interesting. I wonder how low it goes.

The very idea of complex/central apnea boggles my mind.

Centrals are a scary concept ! I'm pretty lucky, my o2 level never goes below 93% and is almost always above 95% when I sleep. I don't get many CA's according to Sleepyhead, and those might be flagged in error from what I've read.

Your 02 results should be on your sleep study - and you should have a copy (by law).

For too many people, the first symptom of sleep apnea is a heart attack or stroke, often fatal.
------"He died quietly in his sleep." "Natural causes".

Don't know how common it is to have few or no symptoms, but your story is like mine. Only I didn't wait that long between my wife telling me that I was stopping breathing and having a sleep study. Similar results, my AHI on my back was about 42 (the answer to life, the universe, and everything, I hear), but only about 6.5 on my side. The resulting total AHI was 29. I guess I don't sleep on my back that much. I had already switched to side sleeping because it helped the snoring before I had a sleep study. And there was no telling how much I slept on my back at my sleep study, since I was so uncomfortable and just barely got enough sleep for a diagnosis, about 3 hours. At any rate, I didn't have daytime sleepiness, headaches, or the other things that I've read about here, just snoring and occasional breathing problems at night. My apnea has not developed into complex apnea, although I do have a few centrals every night that didn't show up until I started using cpap; i.e. my sleep study didn't show any CA's. But not enough CA's to call it complex, just a few.

I still don't get daytime symptoms if I happen to take off my mask early in the night and sleep most of the night without it, which happens very rarely. And I really don't feel much different using cpap than without, other than having a bit more energy for exercise, etc. I think that my overall health has improved, blood pressure down, and so on. But at least some of that is from exercise. Being retired gives me more time for exercise, too.

Anyways, it is interesting how individual apnea and it's symptoms are.

Thanks for posting this because I've been wondering the same thing.

Last year I was diagnosed with moderate OSA .... AHI of 16.

I am currently waiting to have a follow up with the sleep specialist before being titrated for CPAP in May.

As for symptoms, I simply don't have any. I sleep well these days (since my initial panic after diagnosis when I had a bout of insomnia), wake up with lots of energy and don't feel fatigued during the day .. exercise daily and even run!

I am looking forward to seeing how I feel once I start CPAP in May. The reason I was diagnosed was because I had a bout of atrial tachycardia last year and the doctor suggested a sleep study. Thank goodness for that because otherwise this might have gone undetected because I had none of the usual symptoms of fatigue or snoring etc. I am also normal weight and don't have metabolic syndrome.

The sleep specialist I saw in January told me that my sleep study indicated that my oxygen levels are pretty much normal for most of the night. Maybe this is the reason I feel ok? Just speculating here....

Anyway it's interesting that some folks feel awful with an AHI of 5 and others feel just fine with much higher AHI. I'd love to know why.

Julie wrote:Your 02 results should be on your sleep study - and you should have a copy (by law).

That's news to me. I never set eyes on any of my sleep study results. Truth be told, I don't have a lot of confidence in my sleep doctor(s). I prefer doctors who at least make an effort to explain things. Furthermore, it's a pulmonology practice. I get that pulmonologists have something to say about sleep apnea, but in my judgment it should be an interdisciplinary thing, with cardiology and neurology involved as well. I may change to a different practice, but I guess I'll wait and see how the ASV works first.

Getting back to the main topic...as I say, I don't notice a lot of the symptoms that others write about. Of course, I don't know how I'd feel if my AHI were below 5. For all I know, it's been above 5, and even above 10, for many years. But I'm still working, with no immediate interest in retirement; I get to the gym 3 or 4 times a week and have good workouts. In good weather I take long walks. I don't fall asleep early in the evening, but I do have trouble sleeping later than 6 am, so I have to force myself to turn in by 10. And when I sleep, I dream.

Well, the ASV should be here in an hour or so.

Hi - your doctors don't do the study results (even if they think they're interpreting them to you), the lab produces them and you definitely should have a copy for future use if nothing else. Knowing them could be important, and also helps us to help you.

Julie wrote:Hi - your doctors don't do the study results (even if they think they're interpreting them to you), the lab produces them and you definitely should have a copy for future use if nothing else. Knowing them could be important, and also helps us to help you.

Good to know. There's now an online patient portal that I've registered for, but the study results aren't there. I've sent them a message requesting them.