Sleep apnea (you need to get it treated)

[bieberhole69]

I wrote a novel, but just bear with me...

For years I've taken daily naps--minimum 1hr, more if possible. Recently, the problem got bad enough that my career was in danger of suffering. My GF also made a lot of comments about how I snored extra loud and would choke and not breathe during my sleep--it would get worse as I gained weight, but wouldn't disappear either even at my leanest / lightest / with the most cardio. She urged me to get a sleep study, and so I did.

The results?

150 apnea events (these are defined as 10 seconds or longer not breathing during sleep) per hour. Every one of these events resulted in me opening my eyes and not going into REM sleep whether I knew it or not. Severe apnea by my Dr. was defined as 50 events per hour, but I think the standard is 30. Anyways...oxygen saturation went down as little as 80% during these times. That's about on par with what someone has minutes after a heart attack. I was then fitted with a cpap and monitored / adjusted through the night and shown those charts. The difference is night and day.

I now have about 2 events per hour. I no longer take naps out of necessity, but out of luxury. 3-4hrs of sleep on the machine makes me feel better than 12 hours without it. It's completely and totally changed my life for the better--I used to ditch out of things due to sheer exhaustion, and now I feel like I have incredible energy. My training energy is much higher too, and I barely use stimulants anymore. I don't know if it's related to the machine, but I've managed to put on 10lbs without adjusting my diet and none of it appears to be from fat. All in all--I feel like a million bucks.

So you're thinking "but I don't want to look like darth vader everynight and it must suck to have the machine constantly forcing air through you!" Well...the darth vader thing is unavoidable--but at least your GF / wife won't have to move to the other room because you're snoring so loud, or become frustrated because she's getting less sleep, or worry about whether you're going to actually start breathing again.

In addition, modern cpap machines only push air in when you're breathing (and stop when you stop). They also can auto-adjust the pressure based on your needs. AND they also tell you how many apnea events you averaged on night so you know whether you need to make some changes or not. There's also a wide variety of masks available so you can find one that you feel completely comfortable with.

In conclusion: if you think you have sleep apnea, or your GF / wife moves to the other room or bitches to you about your constant snoring--you really should get checked out. There's a myriad of health issues that can arise from sleep apnea as well--new research is showing that extreme hypoxia (going without oxygen) during sleep apnea may increase tumor growth. Hypoxia can also increase RBCs--which most of us are trying to avoid. It really has been life-changing for me, and I hope any of you even thinking about it will just go ahead and schedule that appointment. It's a little bit of a hassle to go through, but worth every single little bit of it.

 

[nothuman]

Good post. Can you describe your sleep patterns prior to getting the mask? Other than the snoring, did you find yourself constantly waking up and only getting a handful of hours of sleep?

 

[Dream_Big]

So you're thinking "but I don't want to look like darth vader everynight

My SO reminds me to "Vader-up" at bedtime...I learned to embrace the dark side after a while. She prefers the CPAP machine's "white noise" over my snoring. Good post.

 

[ALLEX]

I normally go thru the night without waking up, but I know when the apnea was bad because I wake up exhausted with a mild headache. Worst feeling.

Losing some weight usually helps.

 

[bieberhole69]

Good post. Can you describe your sleep patterns prior to getting the mask? Other than the snoring, did you find yourself constantly waking up and only getting a handful of hours of sleep?

Was only able to stay sleeping on my side. Sometimes sweaty when waking up, sometimes high HR. Sometimes headaches in the morning but I just thought it was from overuse of caffeine (would dose caffeine and it'd go awya for a few hours). I found myself waking up at the worst about 8x per night--but I'd be instantly back to sleep. For instance, during the study I woke up 150x per hour according to the electrodes around my eyes (they shot open) but I only remember waking up once or twice the entire study.

Apparently other symptoms can include inability to stay focused while driving or other repetitive tasks--and I must say I had a hell of a time doing just that before, but now I can stay awake without much effort or any stimulants even with the worst activity.

Here's a good breakdown of the common ones (but not quite comprehensive)

Sleep apnea Symptoms - Mayo Clinic

But bottom line is this--if you SUSPECT you have sleep apnea, you more than likely have it. I'm telling you...life changing! And you will get fresh gains in the gym too.

Edit: at the very worst, about a week or two before I made the call to get the study, I woke up with such violence and frequency (could feel myself choking one or two times of the wakeups per night) that at one point I remember thinking "if I was dead at least I would get some decent fucking sleep and not have to deal with this shit." Never ever had a thought like that in my life. Was a bit scary.

I normally go thru the night without waking up, but I know when the apnea was bad because I wake up exhausted with a mild headache. Worst feeling.

Losing some weight usually helps.

According to the study I did I woke up 150x per hour, but I only remembered once or twice the entire night. Of course losing weight helps, but I still had it 40lbs down and a lot of us here are only planning on getting bigger...so I think it's important to consider getting a sleep study done regardless of whether you THINK it's not so bad currently. I feel like I wasted a lot of opportunities over 5 years because I was so chronically exhausted. That was my baseline, so I just reasoned with myself that it was OK.

 

[bieberhole69]

My SO reminds me to "Vader-up" at bedtime...I learned to embrace the dark side after a while. She prefers the CPAP machine's "white noise" over my snoring. Good post.

Thanks man. Do you have one of the more modern CPAPs / masks? I have a phillips respironics dreamstation auto-cpap and it's pretty silent. I myself hear the air rushing through the mask, but my gf says she can't hear it hardly at all. There's little diffuser pads that came with mine that kind of muffle the outgoing air. Of course I love the sound of it...it's a weird soothing rhythmic sound that tends to sing me to sleep in a weird way.

 

[nothuman]

Was only able to stay sleeping on my side. Sometimes sweaty when waking up, sometimes high HR. Sometimes headaches in the morning but I just thought it was from overuse of caffeine (would dose caffeine and it'd go awya for a few hours). I found myself waking up at the worst about 8x per night--but I'd be instantly back to sleep. For instance, during the study I woke up 150x per hour according to the electrodes around my eyes (they shot open) but I only remember waking up once or twice the entire study.



Apparently other symptoms can include inability to stay focused while driving or other repetitive tasks--and I must say I had a hell of a time doing just that before, but now I can stay awake without much effort or any stimulants even with the worst activity.



Here's a good breakdown of the common ones (but not quite comprehensive)



Sleep apnea Symptoms - Mayo Clinic



But bottom line is this--if you SUSPECT you have sleep apnea, you more than likely have it. I'm telling you...life changing! And you will get fresh gains in the gym too.







According to the study I did I woke up 150x per hour, but I only remembered once or twice the entire night. Of course losing weight helps, but I still had it 40lbs down and a lot of us here are only planning on getting bigger...so I think it's important to consider getting a sleep study done regardless of whether you THINK it's not so bad currently. I feel like I wasted a lot of opportunities over 5 years because I was so chronically exhausted. That was my baseline, so I just reasoned with myself that it was OK.

I don't get any of those symptoms but I have a high RDW and that's linked to apnea. I was supposed to get a sleep study tonight actually but they called me yesterday to say my insurance isn't accepted there so I have to wait longer

 

[bieberhole69]

I don't get any of those symptoms but I have a high RDW and that's linked to apnea. I was supposed to get a sleep study tonight actually but they called me yesterday to say my insurance isn't accepted there so I have to wait longer

Call around man--there's way more than one sleep clinic I'm sure. The first one I called had a 6mo wait and that wasn't gonna cut it (read the edit part above to find out why). I called another that wouldn't take my insurance. Another required referral from a PCP--I don't have one and didn't want to go through the hassle / spend extra to get one. Finally found one that would directly take me and they ended up being a good experience. Almost all of them farm out the sleep study to a common place unless they're a hospital-based clinic, so there's really no point to wait on one in particular over another.

 

[nothuman]

Call around man--there's way more than one sleep clinic I'm sure. The first one I called had a 6mo wait and that wasn't gonna cut it (read the edit part above to find out why). I called another that wouldn't take my insurance. Another required referral from a PCP--I don't have one and didn't want to go through the hassle / spend extra to get one. Finally found one that would directly take me and they ended up being a good experience. Almost all of them farm out the sleep study to a common place unless they're a hospital-based clinic, so there's really no point to wait on one other than the other.

Yea I know. Waiting on my cardiologist to refer me to a different one now. Should be any day

 

[bieberhole69]

Yea I know. Waiting on my cardiologist to refer me to a different one now. Should be any day

Good luck man! Let me know how it goes.

 

[GreenTLB6]

Thanks for sharing bro. An eye opener for sure.

 

[jlm25]

dude, getting a cpap machine has changed my life. I had surgery to fix an umbilical hernia, for the following 5-6 days I was waking up gasping for air, which would result in panic attacks. My wife did some googling (lol google doc) and wanted me to look into sleep apnea. I was prescribed trazadone, and even taking 50mg I couldn't sleep.

Finally had a sleep study done, and shortly after got fitted for a cpap! I was having 38 sleep apnea episodes an hour and my oxygen would drop to 80%. I don't need to nap like I use to. I wake up and feel insanely good! I never realized just how important proper sleep truly is.

 

[mas1derful]

Its a life charger youll never realized how bad you felt until you realize how much better you feel. I went 2 minutes without breathing during my study. They fitted me into a cpap that night then contuned the sleep over. The clinic had a standard and if yours was bad enough you got placed in a maxhine mine was severe.

 

[Nuttinbutapeanut]

Had a CPAP 10 years now. The first year I got it I probably gained ten pounds of muscle. The stress and lack of quality sleep was ruining my life.

 

[npcout]

I work nights, my apnea was so bad I was always napping and could never keep my eyes open driving home. One day, I swerved off the road and hit the curb.. Thank god no damage to my car or anyone else..

Got tested immediately, cpap immediately.. Never ever ever did that happen again. I feel so much better overall. It was a good wake up call.. I always new it was my apnea making me tired but I was to hard headed to get tested.

 

[Poohbear513]

For me I'd have acid reflux all the time and was tired all the time even when I would sleep a lot !

 

[cubano]

Agree with everyone. CPAP is a life changer. I was always sleepy, tired, grumpy, unmotivated and didn't know why. Finally got a sleep study and put on CPAP. It wasn't an over-night game changer. It was more of a gradual thing. But compared to how I was feeling 2 years ago, I feel like superman now.

 

[bxbomber]

I can't wait for my cpap.
Had my second sleep study a week or 2 ago. I posted in another thread. Anyway can't wait to try it out, home med place called me yesterday to tell me they got the order from my doc and it will be processed and someone will call me within a week to come out to my house and set it up. From how all you guys are saying I can't wait to get a few weeks with the machine on.

-bx

 

[bieberhole69]

I work nights, my apnea was so bad I was always napping and could never keep my eyes open driving home. One day, I swerved off the road and hit the curb.. Thank god no damage to my car or anyone else..

Got tested immediately, cpap immediately.. Never ever ever did that happen again. I feel so much better overall. It was a good wake up call.. I always new it was my apnea making me tired but I was to hard headed to get tested.

I put it off for years so I know what you mean!

For me I'd have acid reflux all the time and was tired all the time even when I would sleep a lot !

Forgot to mention this symptom. Was really, really bad. Even worse at night.

I can't wait for my cpap.
Had my second sleep study a week or 2 ago. I posted in another thread. Anyway can't wait to try it out, home med place called me yesterday to tell me they got the order from my doc and it will be processed and someone will call me within a week to come out to my house and set it up. From how all you guys are saying I can't wait to get a few weeks with the machine on.

-bx

Glad to hear you're getting it fixed, although I don't know why it's going to take a week or get someone out to your house to set it up if you had the second sleep study. It should just be pick it up and pre-programmed. Above all, you have 30days to be happy with your mask or not. Make sure you decide early on whether or not that's the one you want to keep.

 

[bxbomber]

I put it off for years so I know what you mean!



Forgot to mention this symptom. Was really, really bad. Even worse at night.



Glad to hear you're getting it fixed, although I don't know why it's going to take a week or get someone out to your house to set it up if you had the second sleep study. It should just be pick it up and pre-programmed. Above all, you have 30days to be happy with your mask or not. Make sure you decide early on whether or not that's the one you want to keep.

I thought I'd be able to get away with just the nasal one but since I don't keep my mouth closed while sleeping I have to have the full face one(covering mouth and nose)
Hopefully it's not that hard to get used to.
-bx