Brain fog and depression

Can someone give me some hope and relief please. I am currently overweight and have a thick neck. My physician said I most probably have OSA. I am currently being tested. Can someone tell me if they experienced the brain fog, confusion, depression thing prior to being treated for sleep apnea. I sleep 9 hours and I am still tired. My wife says I gasp for air occasionally. Anyone's input is appreciated.

Everything you are experiencing is common with moderate to severe sleep apnea. Get the results of those tests you mentioned and post the results here so people can guide you. When you get some time read this 'sticky' post for beginners:

viewtopic/t61785/Especially-for-newly-d ... ml#p578692

Also please register so you can get all the benefits of being a member.

andy e. wrote:Can someone tell me if they experienced the brain fog, confusion, depression thing prior to being treated for sleep apnea. I sleep 9 hours and I am still tired. My wife says I gasp for air occasionally.

It's very common. Many have been cured of these symptoms by CPAP.

Stay strong and get those test results.

Thank you for the replies. Means a lot. Did you guys go through depression also? If so, how did you get through the rough days and keep faith?

My doctors never treated me for depression although my records have that diagnosis. I was afraid to accept that diagnosis for fear that being labeled would give the doctors excuse to stopping looking for that something I knew was wrong. I feel it was more sleep deprivation and exhaustion since I didn't feel particularly sad, just unable to muster energy or motivation for anything not necessary to survival. Once both my sleep disorders (OSA + PLMD) were effectively treated I began to see a renewed interest in life. Hopefully you're getting ready to experience the same.

Depression is interesting in how it manifests itself.

For me it included self doubt from simple things I should have taken in my stride, Making decisions that in hindsight were dumb to say the least (yet I could justify them at the time), anger at things that I should have ignored, a glass half empty approach, and other things.

Since starting therapy for OSA it's the 'depression' that has been treated first and I'm so glad. I'm sure my work colleagues are looking at me now and wondering who the hell I am. Who is this new person - amenable, fully collegial, so much more understanding, and probably a lot nicer to be around? I'm embarrassed to think about how they, in particular, must have carefully navigated their way around certain subjects. I owe them so much for the forebearance and eventually will bring this whole thing into perspective with them.

...and the fog has gone! I may still feel somewhat tired during the day but the mind is back.

andy e. wrote: . . . Can someone tell me if they experienced the brain fog, confusion, depression thing prior to being treated for sleep apnea. . . .

I experienced all three. Not clinically. And not that I realized at the time. But, yeah.

Life is much, much better now. I consider PAP to have saved my life and to have more than doubled the quality of my waking life.

I was under treatment for depression before starting CPAP. The first two nights changed my life entirely. I am now a very happy person. I would never, ever want to sleep without this again.

How was your depression and how did you guys deal with it?

andy2016 wrote:How was your depression and how did you guys deal with it?

Controlled by listening to the glorious music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

Holden4th wrote:

andy2016 wrote:How was your depression and how did you guys deal with it?

Controlled by listening to the glorious music of Johann Sebastian Bach.

I reckon your not referring to Sebastian Bach of Skidrow

Sent from hell

andy e. wrote:Can someone tell me if they experienced the brain fog, confusion, depression thing prior to being treated for sleep apnea.

I was wondering if apnea causes irreversible brain health issues like cognitive decline or memory loss due to brain cell damage/death?

Chipper wrote:

andy e. wrote:Can someone tell me if they experienced the brain fog, confusion, depression thing prior to being treated for sleep apnea.

I was wondering if apnea causes irreversible brain health issues like cognitive decline or memory loss due to brain cell damage/death?

Do a google search and you will come up with many articles. Here is a 2016 research abstract on the question. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4828426/

Chipper wrote:

andy e. wrote:Can someone tell me if they experienced the brain fog, confusion, depression thing prior to being treated for sleep apnea.

I was wondering if apnea causes irreversible brain health issues like cognitive decline or memory loss due to brain cell damage/death?

Personally, I LOVE it when old threads/topics get revived. Seriously. Old threads are like old brains--just as good as the young ones when you take care of them.

My understanding is that the word "irreversible" doesn't always apply to brain questions in quite the same way as for other organs, since the brain seems able to do a rewire job to appropriate other locations for what is "lost." All this stuff is still a nebulous area in regards to questions about such conditions as obstructive sleep apnea and hypoxia in general in adults.

"Cognitive decline" has different definitions for different studies, and it appears to me that the brain people can't get onto the same page about what sort of changes are to be expected over time because of the wide variation in memory changes and personality changes as we age. The literature reads more like philosophical meanderings than hard science to me.

In the brain, some cells "come" and "go." Some of that is cool. Some of that is uncool.

So to me, there is little use in trying to figure out what got our brains to the point where they may be at the moment. The question, for me, is this: What can I do to make every organ in my body, including my brain, better--or at least, less likely to get worse faster? Breathing well and getting the best sleep possible is, um, a no-brainer, to my way of, uh, thinking.

-jeff