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Comment by anyfoo | Hacker News Reader

> People should be more aware of the symptoms of sleep apneas

I'm always a bit puzzled that this needs to be pointed out? I don't have sleep apnea per se, at least not chronically, but I've definitely had bouts of it due to allergy, sickness, stuff like that. The symptoms are the same because the mechanism is the same: I didn't get enough oxygen in the night.

It's always glaringly obvious to me the next day. I feel way more tired and exhausted than I normally would given the amount of sleep. I sometimes had instances of waking up gasping for air.

I really don't need to be told in those instances that there was an issue during the night. My sleep didn't sleep, of course there's something wrong and needs to be looked at?

Like, one time's a fluke, but if it happens a lot...

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Couple of things to address here...

One, not all sleep apnea patients snore. 20% do not snore

Second, I am not sure what your experience has to do with people that DO have sleep apnea? If you are correct and you do NOT have chronic sleep apnea, then it makes sense you would notice clearly on the nights you did. For someone who has suffered from it for years (or even their whole life), they aren't going to have anything to compare it to. They don't 'feel way more tired and exhausted' then normal because THIS IS THEIR NORMAL. If everything feels the same as it always feels, why would they assume it was sleep apnea?

Just because you experience something a particular way doesn't mean everyone does

I think it’s important to know your personal context levels.

You noticed it because it’s happened to you occasionally. What about people who’ve been experiencing it most of their lives? To them, they are just tired all the time and don’t know why. It could be any number of things.

To someone who’s never experienced it, how could they understand?

My wife has bad sleep apnea and has to use a CPAP - neither of us noticed or understood the issue until she did a sleep study to deal with her bad snoring. We knew she was tired all the time, but attributed it to factors like work stress or maybe diet.

The average person’s understanding of sleep apnea is probably around the level of “it exists and they have to wear a device at night” and not much more.

I guess. This is a good answer, it did made me recontextualize.

Maybe it was always that much obvious to me that what should have been a good night of sleep had no, or maybe even a negative, effect on my wellbeing, and therefore something must be wrong during the sleep.

But if the effects are a bit more muted and accumulate more gradually, and you've never heard much about sleep apnea, you might not directly attribute it to the sleep itself.

It’s typically something that sets in over time (often, but not always with weight gain and age), most people don’t notice because it’s gradual. Especially if they aren’t in normal risk groups. OSA symptoms are easy for an individual (and clinicians) to misatribute

Yeah, but I've met people who think it's "normal" to wake up tired and exhausted even after multiple (or even many) nights of sufficient sleep, time-wise.

I remember one person who thought waking up tired is just part of being an adult?

The original comment said "multiple folds higher chances to be depressed, unemployed", for me that's a bit like saying that being on fire has a very high chance to make you depressed and unemployed.

Yeah, of course that's true, but the effect on performance and well-being after a sleep apnea night is so obvious to me, I don't have to look for the proximate cause...

EDIT: Through the other answer came to me that maybe in other cases, it's not so directly obvious just after waking up.

Waking up tired could be caffeine addiction too, which I think most adults are addicted to

I’m addicted to caffeine and don’t wake up tired. Maybe you have sleep apnea.

> > People should be more aware of the symptoms of sleep apneas

> I'm always a bit puzzled that this needs to be pointed out?

You're puzzled that most people don't know the symptoms of sleep apnea? Maybe there are big campaigns where you are, but I've never seen any public information about its symptoms.

yes, it needs to be pointed out. if you have it for a long time you might not realize it's a fluke (like me)

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