More about sleep apnea symptoms

On the topic of sleep apnea symptoms, I just want to stress that while snoring can be a major red flag for a lot of people, some people who have sleep apnea don't snore at all. I know this because that's the case for me. I might snort a little if an apnea is severe enough to wake me all the way up or if I'm zonked out, flat on my back but my doctor noted no snoring at all in my sleep study.

There are a lot of random little signs that I started to noticed after I was diagnosed. Some of my symptoms are:

Excessive sleepiness. This isn't the kind of tired you are if you just haven't gotten enough sleep one or two nights. This is the kind of sleepiness you'd expect if you haven't gotten enough sleep in years. All you can think about when you're awake is when you'll be able to sleep next. This creeps up slowly because the body is able to adjust to lack of sleep pretty well but when it gets bad, your whole life becomes about sleep. Or if you're in the early stages of sleep apnea, it might not be that extreme but being sleepy a lot is the big, red flag warning sign.

Feeling sick constantly. I always felt like I was coming down with a cold or flu and I knew something was wrong but I didn't know what. I'd also often have a sore throat in the morning, which is another common symptom. That just made me think I had some weird, months-long virus that would surely kill me or drive me insane. Basically, I just felt crappy a lot. Luckily, this was one of the first things to subside when I started with CPAP.

Morning headaches. I didn't notice these when my sleep behaviorist first asked because they go away within a few minutes of being awake, when my brain starts getting enough oxygen again (I know, scary). It's never an extreme, migraine type headache, just a little aching in the forehead area. Again, these were my symptoms so you might not have headaches at all, etc.

Waking up hot and sweaty. I'm a fairly cold sleeper so when I noticed that I was waking up all hot and sweaty in my freezing cold apartment, that was puzzling. Apneas make your brain think you're suffocating, triggering a rush of adrenaline, which makes you sweat. 

Major brain fuzz. A big result of sleep apnea for me is that it slowly but surely took away a lot of what makes me, me. Meaning, my creativity was zapped, I felt moody and anxious a lot, I couldn't concentrate or really care about anything, etc. It was a lot like I've felt when depressed but different, somehow. Like I wanted to care but I was too tired. 

Some other symptoms that I know of can include having dreams about choking, drowning or suffocating; getting up to use the bathroom more than usual; pauses in your breathing pattern while sleeping; waking up in a panic; and general shortness of breath.

I'm not wearing the mask all the way through the night so I still have some of the symptoms a lot and it comes and goes. Some days I'm just sleepy, other days I'm a moody bitch. It's kind of hard to tell what's me, what's the sleep apnea, and what might be something else. It's been so long since I've slept normally that it doesn't matter anyway.

If you have sleep apnea and have any symptoms that I didn't mention here, please add those in the comments. It might help someone who's in denial about the excessive sleepiness part.

I know I've said this before but if you suspect that you have sleep apnea, please talk about it with your doctor. First of all, being tired all the time just sucks and you deserve to not feel like crap but more than that, it can kill you. It's not just an annoyance because of the snoring or a hindrance because of the sleepiness, IT CAN KILL YOU. Wearing a mask and hose to bed every night is decidedly not glam but I'd rather do that than DIE.

Comments

[Jessi]

I have sleep apnea and it got baaaaad before I got treatment. I would get up and literally fall asleep sitting up. I would wake up constantly during the night with headaches. I did snore, but my husband told me he heard me stop breathing during the night and he would poke me.
I think I had it for a couple of years at least before treatment. I am so glad I have my CPAP now--I feel 8000 times better.

[Moe]

And here I thought it was just hormones/age/early onset menopause that was making me sweat in the morning.

[sistercoyote]

When I was diagnosed, I was told that in the five-hour span where I actually managed to sleep, my sleep was disturbed some 600+ times. So, naturally, I also have insomnia because my brain tends to think OH MY GOD WE'RE GOING TO DIE!!!!!! whenever I start to drift off (it's a lot better now, two years in, but it still happens when I start to fall asleep without the mask on).

I did snore, but the big symptom for me was that I would simply stop breathing in the middle of the night. A friend mentioned this when I told her about the diagnosis -- that when we would have sleepovers as pre-teens/teenagers I used to wake her up by not breathing.

Also, I cannot sleep on my back, even to this day, without chemical intervention. When I had braces, many many moons ago, I once pulled my retainer off "in my sleep" because it prevented me from laying on my stomach!

I've always slept hot, so I didn't notice the sweating, but I did have chronic headaches, depression, high blood pressure, and it turns out that having a seriously interrupted sleep cycle can also affect one's blood sugar levels. And I forgot things, missed appointments and had morning sore throats; I figure the only reason I wasn't late to work because of all this was that I wasn't sleeping when the alarm went off anyway!

[Regina T]

You might want to mention changes in mood/generalized crankiness during the day. This is similar to your brain fuzz, but for me, I just got cranky and short tempered. Also, I felt hot during the day as well. THinking this was hormone related (I'm in my 40s) I chalked this up to perimenopause, but have since found out that the rise in temperature throughout the day pertains to the extremes you go through during the night when you stop breathing and have that adrenaline rush. Lack of restorative sleep effects every system in your body. It decreases your body's immune system, regulatory system, healing power, blood cell production and a whole host of other systems that depend on those hours of sleep to rejuvenate the body and help it operate at its prime level. The good news is that even getting a few hours of solid, uninterrupted sleep can restore the body's functioning capablities quickly. I'm sure you will be tolerating the mask better with each passing week. It took me about a month or so to really sleep longer than 4 hours with my mask. I had to switch to a nasal prong mask before I was able to use the tool to it's fullest potential. Good luck finding that sweet spot!

[Figure8onaDate]

Oh I am so looking forward to getting this dealt with. I'm having trouble getting my doctor to return my calls and I WANT to get a CPAP ASAP. I had the first half of a sleep study and the tech said I had apnea but that I didn't sleep enough to get the CPAP calibration or something so I have to go back, but I have to get my doctor to say I have to go back and he had to reschedule my follow-up appointment. I have all of the symptoms you've described and I feel like it's all gotten significantly worse during the last few months. I used to be able to nap and felt like it made up for my poor sleeping a bit but lately I constantly wake up gasping even when I try to nap. It's horrible and I'm exhausted ALL the time. It's affecting my work and just about everything else in my life.

[Karen]

Getting the CPAP was the best thing that both my husband and I did for ourselves. He got his first, and I got mine late last year. When they did my sleep study my doc said that I stopped breathing 65 times in an hour - more than once a minute! That's pretty terrifying.

I also asked him about weight loss, and would it my apnea go away. He said no - I have a small throat, and since my dad had sleep apnea, I was more likely to have it. He's treated people that are 90 pounds soaking wet and have the worst apnea he's ever seen. So don't let a doctor tell you that you HAVE to lose weight before they'll give you a sleep study.

[CTJen]

The older sister of a childhood friend died from sleep apnea a couple of years ago. So yeah. It's nothing to fool around with. Thank you for posting this.

[Rebecca V/aliax]

Yesterday my doctor ordered a sleep study - for me it's the morning headaches and excessive sleepiness.

Only recently have I learned that the symptoms for sleep apnea are not solely "snoring" so I really appreciate your post :)

[gina]

So glad you've posted about this. I started with the CPAP treatments about two months ago and can tell a definite difference - no more morning headaches (I used to think they were sinus headaches!), no more falling asleep in the middle of the day and sleeping most of the weekend because i'm so tired. Yeah, the mask isn't the sexiest thing in the world, and I admit to being shy about wearing it around my husband, but I like the idea of actually *breathing* through the night far better.

[Jessie]

Hi! I came to your blog after reading your article over at Yvonne's Place. :)

I've used a CPAP for about 4 years now, and it's changed my life for the better. I, too, had problems with keeping the mask on at night. Part of that was learning how to fit the mask (not too loose, not too tight) and also getting the right mask for me. At first, they gave me a cup mask that fit over my entire nose... I've never been able to sleep through the night with that type of mask. Once I switched to a nasal mask, I had a lot better success. Sometimes, it also helps if you use something like Ayr to keep your nose from getting dry. (I just buy a tube of the gel and put it on my nose before bed)

One last thing... you should also consider adding Aromatherapy to your treatment. It was the final step in helping me keep my mask on at night. Check out http://pur-sleep.com/ ... they sell essential oils specifically designed for CPAP use. I love it!

[Sherie]

If you don't have a humidified unit, ask for one to try.

I would fall asleep sitting on the edge of the bed. What really scared me was falling asleep sitting in the recliner. Knowing I was falling asleep, but not being able to stop. Or waking up without even realizing I'd fallen asleep. Worst of all though, by far, was catching myself falling asleep while driving. There were appointments I rescheduled or missed completely because I was simply too tired to handle it.

Everyone forgets what they went into another room for, sometimes. But if you find yourself doing it repeatedly? Or you've stopped carrying a purse because you've set it down somewhere and forgotten it. Many times. The cognitive and short-term memory stuff got really bad for me.

In my first study, they found I was having an average of 80 wakings an hour, with my blood oxygen running in the lower 80s. But it got as low as 64. sixty.fricking.four. The headaches you talk about? Yep. Mouth and tongue sores too, from gnashing my teeth while in the middle of a choking/awakening spell. Lots of clumsiness, dropping things, tripping. The constantly feeling sick, or hurting awfully, or like you just couldn't handle doing *any* thing.

My apnea/depression/malaise cycle helped me balloon up to just over 400lbs at the first of this year. Just going on C-PAP, I'm now down to 365. I have more energy, more good days. You're absolutely right that weight has nothing to do with severity of apnea, but it's sometimes a co-morbid thing. The apnea leaves your body in such distress that it is in full survival mode all the time, and no matter what you do the weight just keeps on coming. It's a deadly cycle. Since being on C-PAP, my blood pressure and heart rate are down twenty points.

If you even *think* you might have apnea, get a study. Your life really does depend on it.

[C]

I had sleep apnea pre-surgery. I was waking up some insane amount of times every hour and because my sleep was always so shitty - I never even knew. Getting that mask changed my life.

[Eve]

My boyfriend was diagnosed with this a few months ago. He did have snoring as a symptom, though he also had the morning sore throat, feeling generally run-down all the time, and excessive sleepiness. Not to mention crankiness, but he's just a crankypants in general so I didn't think much of it.

The CPAP has changed both our lives. He doesn't keep me up all night snoring anymore, and obviously he gets to sleep properly as well. I get really irrational when I'm half-awake and angry about not being asleep, and I used to get so mad at him because he got to sleep while I didn't. Of course, he wasn't really sleeping, but at least he wasn't awake enough to know about it.

Things are much, much better now. The only problem we have is when he takes his mask off in the middle of the night, falls asleep without putting it back on, and wakes me up with his snoring. That's happening less and less though. No, the CPAP isn't sexy, but getting a good night's sleep is worth it!

[Elizebeth Turnquist]

Have you heard of the learning Didgeridoo for sleep apnea? (Man, I sound like I'm trying to sell something.) I read about it a long while ago when looking up sleep apnea on Wiki (
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_apnea#Alternative_treatments). I don't have sleep apnea, so I haven't tried the treatment. I just thought it was an interesting idea.

[leendadll]

It's taboo for women to play didgeridoos... just in case you're considering that option.

Not to distract from the seriousness of sleep apnea: My sleep/fatigue problems are caused by my cats' constant requests to go in/out in the morning, starting at 5:45 and continuing till I finally get up for work (around 11). Figuring that out was quite a relief for me - though training them to stay in/out for longer shifts is slow going.