Brain Fog

I've been on CPAP/APAP for about 6 months now. Took me while to settle on the right mask, get the right pressure, manage leaks, etc. Now all seems to be working fine and I'm using the machine every night. Problem is, although I'm not dead-tired, I have brain fog real bad. I'm beginning to wonder what else might be wrong with me. I seem to sleep well (although it feels very different than it used to) but the fog sets in about an hour after I wake up. This has been going on for months now. Any ideas? I'm getting a little desperate!

I was more than 6 months getting over the brain fog. Keep using the machine, take care of yourself, eat well, exercise, blah, blah, blah, all the usual bumpf.

Have patience, Grasshopper! I'm hopeful for you that you will get over the brain fog.

As WillSucceed said, it can take months and months to get the full good effects. In the meantime, you have the assurance that you're not doing more damage.

I'm of the opinion that a person really can't even start counting how long they've been using cpap treatment until they have a mask/machine that really suits them, have no mouth air leaks wrecking the therapy, and are using it for every sleeping moment, including any naps.

Using the machine every night, but only for a few hours, then sleeping without it for several hours is not really "cpap treatment" the way I think of it. (Not that I'm saying that's how you did it, DCTom ...I'm just musing out loud in general.) Just look at all the sleeping difficulties many people have while trying to find a comfortable mask and getting used to this kind of strange way to try to sleep, deal with mouth air leaks, etc.

I don't know if "I've been on cpap treatment for x number of days, weeks, months" really applies until all the pieces of puzzle are in place and a person is actually getting optimum treatment (and that includes no mouth air leaks) every sleeping moment - all night, every night - getting at least six hours of "treatment" sleep each night.

Personally, I'd start counting right there. Starting with when I was actually able to sleep all night using the correct pressure. Autopap helps immensely in knowing that the pressure is right.

One can be using a cpap machine from day one...even with full "compliance" if one goes by the official compliance definition as 4 hours a night - far too few, imho. But getting actual cpap "treatment" from day one is quite another thing.

At the risk of throwing in a pessimistic possibility, years and years of undiagnosed, untreated OSA can do lasting damage in some respects, in some cases. As well as my treatment has been going for almost two years now, I don't think I'll ever have good short term memory. But at least I know I'm doing what I can to lessen further damage to what's left of the 60 year old brain cells.

My next post has some links about that. Not fun to read, but certainly indicate good reason for people to get diagnosed as early in life as possible and get on optimum treatment as soon as possible.

Old links that I saved. Hope they still work.

Clickable link to a High Altitude Study
http://books.nap.edu/books/0309054842/html/435.html

Near the bottom of that webpage there are back/forward buttons which "turn the pages" to read the entire article.

A quote from page 439 of the High Altitude study:
"Interestingly, a few studies have even reported that some of the changes in performance after exposures to extreme altitudes persist for up to a year or longer after return to lower altitudes, although much debate surrounds this issue (Bahrke and Shukitt-Hale, 1993)."

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Equally unsettling:
Editorial in Journal of Sleep (requires Adobe Reader to view.)
(Link no longer works.)

Excerpt from the editorial:

"Thirdly, chronic exposure to the features of OSA, such as repetitive intermittent hypoxia, arousals from sleep, or both, could cause neuronal dysfunction. The increased cell apoptosis, which occurs in the hippocampus and cortex of rats chronically exposed to intermittent hypoxia, supports this latter suggestion.[9] Indeed, in these animals, the neuronal dysfunction has been shown to be in the C1A hippocampal region, an area known to be associated with spatial memory and susceptible to hypoxic damage. Interestingly, in this study, the impaired ability to perform spatial memory tasks was only partially reversed after 14 days of normoxia, suggesting residual damage.
In patients with OSA, focal lesions have been detected in the left hippocampus[10] and in more diffuse areas of the brain[11]; as yet, these changes have not been linked to functional consequences. Further research will doubtless explore these tantalizing links between changesin brain morphology and the neurocognitive functional consequences."

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Also, this article from pulmonaryreviews.com:

"Cause or Effect? Gray Matter Loss in OSA Patients"
http://www.pulmonaryreviews.com/apr03/p ... atter.html
(Link no longer works.)
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And...based on an article from American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine:

Sleepiness and Neurodegeneration in Sleep-disordered Breathing: Convergence of Signaling Cascades
http://www.findarticles.com/p/articles/ ... _n13644593
(Link no longer works.)

Perhaps someone can track down those articles -- sorry about the broken links.

rested gal wrote: At the risk of throwing in a pessimistic possibility, years and years of undiagnosed, untreated OSA can do lasting damage in some respects, in some cases. As well as my treatment has been going for almost two years now, I don't think I'll ever have good short term memory. But at least I know I'm doing what I can to lessen further damage to what's left of the 60 year old brain cells.

Hi RD,

My mother died in late 2002 (aged 87). In her mature years she had a shocking snoring problem. It was bad. In fact it was so bad that one night (in 1997), my brother who is a paraplegic and was staying the night at mom's pensioner flat, got up at 2am packed his things, trundled them out to his car (special fittings) all in his wheelchair and took off to go find somewhere he could sleep. Mom never knew.

When she died she had Dementia. It was so severe that 2 weeks befor she passed away, she didn't know who I was. She basically gave up eating - it was clear to me that she didn't want to stay around anymore and I will always believe it was because of her lost memory. When it first started to happen she would try to 'con' her way out of the situations. But, I later realised it was causing her great stress. This happened over a number of years.

In the past 3-4 years I had been finding myself forgetting things & like most in my situation (I guess) began to wonder if what I saw happen to my mother was going to happen to me. In my case it is not at all serious (yet) but it has worried me enough that I had *no* second thoughts about going on CPAP once the doc said "Mr M-----, you have an AHI of 40".

Since CPAP I am feeling like a man on death row who has been given a whole new lease on life. I now think that OSA untreated over many years, caused my otherwise healthy old mother to give up & go.

As for me "I'm too young to die !!!" (mentally and physically). I want to stay at work doing what I love doing for as long as I can.

Anyway, I am now coming to view people with serious snoring problems & evidence of OSA as walking deadmen if they are not getting treatment & certainties if they don't want it or think they don't need it. I am tending to keep this observed opinion to myself but will try to nudge people to where I think they can 'discover' their future for themselves (like here on cpap.talk).

RG I really admire your zeal in helping others. Maybe a few of us could start an apnea get well clinic somewhere

cheers - your new Aussie friend.

DSM
(and call it cpaptalk )

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): CPAP, AHI

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CPAPopedia Keywords Contained In This Post (Click For Definition): CPAP, AHI

I agree with RG about "start time" for CPAP starts after getting it ALL going smoothly and using it all the time. I took me over a year before I could even consider starting the clock for sucess. I had to implement EVERY trick in the book to get it working. All it takes is one missing piece of the puzzle to keep it from REALLY working to full advantage.

That includes getting your nose working, mask comfortable and sealing, lip leaks stopped, rainout stopped, pressures right, pillows selected, Restless Legs stopped....etc etc.

It is indeed a tough therapy, but I would rather NOT go like my grand dad who passed quietly while sound asleep and hurtling off the road in the car that he was driving.

Well said Snork and Amen to your description. This ought to be the opening mantra to the cpap forum.

I am new to this site, but I've been using CPAP for 2 years. IWhere were you people when I thought I was losing my mind???? I had been in school = had to drop out because I just can't remember a thing. It's been 2 years, but just recently finished a book ( and I was an avid reader!). The fog has lifted, thanks to lots of exercise. But I still haven't found my mind. May have gone out with menopause.....