I Got a Sleep Study in My 30s. It Probably Saved My Life
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Then my doctor suggested a sleep study (my dentist had already recommended one due to my teeth grinding). I did it. Ended up getting a CPAP - and that's been a life-changer! I instantly felt at least 10-15 years younger, was able to think more clearly, my wife has been able to get good sleep. In fact, I went from being able to wake up everyone in the house with my loud snoring to my wife checking on me through the night to make sure I'm still alive because I'm now so quiet!
I absolutely love it! The machine itself is whisper quiet. I use nasal pillows instead of the face mask and it's very comfortable. Takes a couple of days to get used to, may have to adjust the settings on your unit to make it work for you, but boy is it worth it!
[1] Yes the age 25 seems to be the general peak, but people under that age can still complain about wrinkles.
So is dropping your bedroom temperature.
Our bodies drop temperature before sleep to signal sleep as well, and the timing of that seems to be important to consider when sleeping.
I find this so annoying because I notice. Oh shit I'm cold, it's that time of night my body temperature is dropping and I'm definitely not going to be in bed in the next 15 minutes. And then I'm awake for the next 5 hours and have terrible sleep because I missed my window.
I've heard of possible surgery. Or that implantable device. Maybe I'll look into those.
The problem was, I actually found it difficult enough to breathe through my nose at that pressure that I would just keep myself awake because I couldn't relax with the mask on. It was kind of horrible and my technician didn't change it for hours. Eventually I started just intentionally snoring while awake to try to get her increase the pressure. No idea if she did but eventually exhaustion won out after around 4 hours.
So just a thought, but if you're using an autoset machine (APAP) maybe discuss with your doctor and make sure the initial pressure is high enough that you're able to breath comfortably through your nose when fully relaxed.
And also, you can experiment with different mask types depending on your sleep position.
I can also adjust the humidity setting. I had to increase it a notch because I woke up in the morning with my nose running and sore - which means I was dehydrated (yeah, that wasn't how I interpreted that symptom).
After those two changes I was able to fall asleep quickly and not wake up with a sore and runny nose.
A key potential advantage of the surgical route is no need (or at least a many years delay for the need) of a CPAP machine, a very significant advantage. Also, the discussed surgeries have a high rate of success in reducing snoring in individuals who don’t have sleep apnea, which is another health benefit for both the patient and the patient’s sleep partner. Snoring is an under-treated condition.
I use the walmart-brand breath-right nasal strips every night as well. I don't know if they actually do anything for me, but they're also inexpensive and they're not uncomfortable, so I figure it's an extremely cheap and harmless placebo if nothing else, and they certainly feel like they're doing something.
Obviously I don't want cancer on my nose, so I would actually like to see how correlated these things are.
All it did was make my lower jaw jut out a bit. It sufficed. Apnea kaputt!
I had a snoring problem, I was asked to take the test and failed it, no cpap.
Turns out I may have just been not sleeping enough.
might have a physical issue with my nose like I mentioned to everyone.
I have a CPAP, I've not noticed anything better about my quality of sleep, or the soundness of my sleep. The only thing it has prevented is my snoring. My sleep studies (did 2 of them - one didn't record my blood oxygen) showed I get ~10 (8 on first, 11 on second) apnea events a night. I still do (according to CPAP) (1.12/hr on average).
As a comparison, my wife gets 3/hr now, and her sleep study showed she had over 200 events per night. She LOVES her CPAP.
I'm very happy for who CPAP works for.
I have lots of friends who's quality of life it improves.
Had a doctor friend even recommend it to me.
I took the CPAP test from a said sleep centre as referred by my doctor just to be present. Wore the machine 3 times.
The folks who in my life swore I had some issues with sleep (including my partner), including loud inter floor snoring, oddly reduced or resolved themselves to some degree as soon as I started paying attention to my sleep and body.
Snoring it turns out can also be a magnified by being over tired.
I just wasn't sleeping enough, and while I felt sharp enough to work and live, my body needed a breather when there hadn't been a vacation for a few years. A few days off here and there yes, but sometimes that's not enough.
First of all they are medical devices, some people can't safely sleep without them, and those people might be unconscious, in surgery, and/or heavily medicated. So that means audits, special testing requirements, etc.
Next medical requirements are quite varied, some are just "assist", some are constant velocity but variable pressure, others are constant pressure and variable velocity, some control breaths per minute, and other setting control total volume. Various health problems, surgery recovery, etc have different requirements. There can be temperature and humidity requirements as well.
So you need a pretty healthy fan to handle all the static and dynamic pressure requirements that are sometimes constant RPM or variable.
Of course all the above need accurate sensors, failures could hurt someone's lungs. Good sensors require laminar flows. Laminar flows get harder with a wide range of pressures, speeds, and volumes.
So it ends up quite a bit more than "a fan that blows a low pressure stream".
Even if they are inaccurate, they are making a lot of people self-conscious about their sleep.
- Why is my sleep score only around 50?
- Why is my HRV lower than everyone elses?
- Why does my pulse ox regularly fall to the 80s?
Some of these people are going to seek medical advice, and some will be prescribed CPAPs.
As far was why people seem to be having sleep apnea more, I like the theory that it's related to weaker jaw muscles in proportion to our bone structure, caused by the modern diet of eating softer foods. But it's a current area of research.
I thought about Oura rings as well, heard good things about them
- The population is getting older
- The population is getting heavier
- There's a greater general awareness of sleep apnea and its seriousness
- Today's CPAP machines are smaller, quieter, and easier and more comfortable to use than those of yesteryear, so doctors know their patients will be more receptive to the treatment
Having good oxygen to breath, and being able to breathe it are really important.
Some people discover they may have a deviated septum or something else so anything physiological is good to get right long before you need it.
Some people are are going to need a CPAP, but trying the nasal stent doesn't take a sleep study, insurance, or a machine which you plug in and maintain: it takes twenty bucks. Probably don't jump straight in to using it every night, it takes the nostrils awhile to get used to them, but I have no discomfort at all starting around the second week of using them.
I would even go so far as to say everyone should just pick them up and try them out. One benefit that never occurred to me is that when I have mild congestion, the mechanical action of the stent will drain it, and no one sleeps well with a stuffy nose. Getting more oxygen per breath while sleeping has no downsides, even if you think you don't need it. If you ever wake up with one sinus filled with mucus, definitely give it a try.
It doesn't work for everyone, and some people are just going to need a CPAP. But it's a no-commitment intervention of negligent cost, and if it works, that's a much better outcome than needing a CPAP and everything which comes with it.
But there are actual, demonstrable reasons why it can serve as an alternative to the CPAP for some number of people, it isn't just woo. I hope I've done a good job of explaining why that is.
(I have many similar issues to the symptoms you describe, but I know they're all essentially attributable to my personal fitness level.)
As noted here, sleep apnea is a huge issue indeed, but I would like to suggest more mundane solutions first. Try different mattresses, pillows, and sleeping temperatures to see what fits you. Reduce caffeine intake for a month. Sleep an hour earlier than your usual for two weeks. Try light exercise everyday. They all add up.
I wish I could get my lost years (and jobs, relationships) back, but that's life.
From what I understand, apnea is insidious because it develops slowly and your body acclimates to your increasing CO2 levels, even though the lack of oxygen is causing brain damage. Getting ASV therapy has been a game-changer. I was turning into a cranky dumb brute and ASV started reversing it, once I acclimated to therapy. That took about 4 months though.
Was told after the sleep study that I snore and stop breathing “within reasonable limits” but I fell asleep in < 1 min and slept 99% of the time. They said I was “a tired person” and that I need more sleep… I am not a tired person and adding an extra hour of sleep the next 2 weeks didn’t improve anything.
The whole experience left a bad taste in my mouth and I’m hesitant now to follow up. I’ve had a few experiences like this at drs for other issues. IDK if it’s something about me but it’s impacted my trust in the medical community and makes me a bit sad even thinking about it and sharing here.
You should view the medical community like all communities: there are good members, bad members, and a whole lot of people in between.
The main issue for me is that I like my general doctor but I’ve felt like specialists are the real crapshoot. I’m in a city where I feel like the specialists are hard to access and have generally been lower quality than when I lived in suburbs.
I’ve wondered if it’s a sort of “pets vs cattle” issue like people talk about servers with. In other words, are there just too many people to give individuals the care they need?
I had a bad experience at my own sleep study too. I sleep on my side, and I can't sleep without some kind of white noise like a fan or rain. But with all that tubing hooked up, it was impossible for me to turn onto my side, and there was no white noise available. So I ended up laying there on my back, like a vampire in its casket, for six hours straight while the sleep techs dutifully came in every hour to adjust wires and ask why I wasn't able to sleep.
Eventually I fell asleep about an hour before the study ended, and they told me I barely got enough data for the study to conclude. They weren't happy with the data, they wanted to do another one but I refused. What they did have was enough to get me a prescription for a cpap.
I'm not a doctor, it's possible that the unique environment just made you sleep differently that night. But despite all my trouble with my own sleep study, I swear by my CPAP. I don't even take so much as a 20 minute nap without it.
I don't understand what you are so disappointed and mistrustful of? What's your complaint? Did you think the hour extra sleep would stop you from snoring?
Getting enough sleep is very important, I recommend you stick with the extra hours.
I came with a real and specific problem that I wanted to resolve and I felt like I was getting, "that problem isn't important, here is what I think is important."
some of the suspected problems with lack of sleep emerge over a long period of time and are not "felt" on a day to day basis. You should worry if you are getting less than 7 hrs on the daily. But otherwise you are in good shape and should be happy with the reassurance that your sleep study provided.
potential link between too little sleep and dementia:
"Sleep well — and reduce your risk of dementia and death
"Two studies show that sleeping six hours or less in midlife can increase dementia risk by 30% or more. Learn how sleep flushes beta amyloid and other substances that accumulate in Alzheimer's disease, and how to improve your sleep quality."
https://www.health.harvard.edu/blog/sleep-well-and-reduce-yo...
I was diagnosed with 'mild to moderate' sleep apnea and told to not drink, and to exercise more. No CPAP needed. And they were right- if I do those things, I don't have many problems. But then again, I can't always do those things.
What really helped though, and I'm loathe to even say it, was taking high absorption magnesium. I hate it because there are very limited studies that say it should work, and it's mostly promoted by absolute quacks. And yet, when I take it, I sleep really well without snoring or having apnea issues and if I stop, I sleep terribly.
The reason to loathe an advice that seems to work, but isn't backed by scientific study is:
The Placebo effect is real and strong.
There's no harm in subscribing to Placebo, if there's no downside, but promoting gets a little... meh. We like to be scientific when possible.
It’s hard to bring your cpap to Confrences because you must find distilled water or deal with the fact that your cpap will collect impurities with the water. Regardless it gets my brain fog away and since I’m not hypoxic it enhances my ability to recall things , problem solving and how I feel . Sleep apnea is real and if you have brain fog or other symptoms get tested. It takes a day to do the study but it is worth it . It is literally like a second wind to yourself .
Also, stay hydrated this is a big thing I have to work on personally.
I could clean it but replacement parts get shipped to me that I don’t have to.
I gave up on using distilled water with my AirSense 11 after the initial supply. I don't mind unhumidified air. While it's possible to run the device with an empty water tank, a replacement sidecap is available that automatically disables the water-warming feature.
Can I just get a sleep apnea machine and try it for, let's say, a week? Is it dangerous?
Pulse ox devices are pretty simple but the ones they give you for testing are the only ones that have passed the FDA regs.
I should also add that for most people it takes months to acclimate to even keeping the damn thing on overnight.
Do you wake up with headaches?
source: i have sleep apnea and wear a cpap
I don't know if this a good enough reason to doubt that I have sleep apnea.
You can also try a different sleep setup, like try and sleep propped up or add an extra pillow.
The thing is that sometime I realize that, when I'm not sleeping, I hold my breath unconsciously for long period of time. Sometime I have to take a deep breath forcefully.
(not mine - but was an interesting read)
So, it seems to me your best bet is to do the study because they’d find (or rule out) non-apnea causes, as well, but I understand the cost concern.
The lowest settings you barely even notice the pressure so I don’t think you would be mortal danger compared to not using it all at that level.
The problem is finding the correct pressure level because going too high can cause central sleep apnea events due to co2 washout.
That’s why titration is done under the guidance of a medical professional for liability reasons.
I wouldn’t buy a used machine online because you don’t know what kind of gunk, smoker residue or bacteria build up the prior owner had. If they kept up with the cleaning and filter schedule etc.
Most advanced Cpap users who have a prescription use the SD card and look at all the logs and data in a program called Oscar it’s open source I think.
I used that data to fine tune to reduce my central sleep apnea events reduce my apnea, hyponea and rera events.
(Personally I first figured out my OSA with the help of an O2Ring oxygen monitor. But those are also about $200 to buy and only one part of a full sleep diagnostic. My life has been greatly improved by using a CPAP.)
If you want to do it yourself without going through insurance you could check out Wesper. You can also buy a Wellue O2Ring off Amazon and see if your oxygen saturation ever drops overnight, which is a large part of what Wesper does.
Do you have information on what kinds of drops are bad vs normal? Or what should be watched out for?
If you can get a note from a Doctor with a history of sleep issues and trying different things insurance should approve it.
Perhaps you can ask insurance what the criteria are.
Might be a lie told by the health providers, but I've heard it multiple times.
Slightly annoying really that I haven't found a magic bullet to fatigue, unsure what to try next (other than just lose some weight & exercise more).
Did you look at the actual data from your CPAP to see if it was working? Oscar (https://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.php/OSCAR_-_The_Guide) provides you with way more information than the basic app on your phone (or display of your CPAP) will provide you; maybe it just needed some adjustments or a different mask.
The cardio part was surprising because if I did a 30m elliptical workout, getting my heart rate up to ~150 for 20 or so minutes, that granted me 1-2 hours of pain free existence. So, in addition to other things like supplements and cutting back on the caffeine, I'm just about at a place where I can manage it, and I think that the cardio is having a cumulative effect, as the windows where my pain level is manageable are widening.
Hope that helps you too if you go that route. Feeling tired all the time is no joke.
This doesn't really mean anything in of itself as your body will happily normalize to whatever caffeine tolerance you feed it at a regular schedule.
Long story short they couldn’t collect any data about my sleep.
It came back conclusive for moderate sleep apnea with recommendations to use a CPAP device. I'm opting for surgery instead.
First time I slept with it on I woke up at 4:00am after having the best sleep of my life and was ready to go. It's amazing what a real nights sleep can give you.
It's hard to understand how bad it is when you're the one doing the snoring. It's easy once you have proof.
I wonder what happened here, it doesn't look like the kind of traits that would be naturally selected.
Mine is mild enough to where I'm able to get away with just the oral appliance and a nasal strip at night (and avoiding alcohol and losing a bit of weight), but these alone have made me sleep considerably better, and I feel a lot more rested throughout the day. I'm generally nicer to people, I don't yell nearly as much, my thinking is a bit clearer, and of course there are other medical benefits to not drinking and not being overweight).
PSA, if anyone here snores, or feels like they're not getting good rest at night, I very very very strongly recommend getting a sleep study.