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My first symptom was my partner telling me I stopped breathing. I have never been overweight, but I was a heavy smoker and that’s a huge risk factor.
After quitting smoking and cutting back from heavy drinking to extremely light drinking, it’s only a problem if I sleep on my back, which is generally uncomfortable for me anyway.
Loud snoring punctuated by choking, according to an ex-girlfriend. I was not overweight at the time.
I remember being tired all the time and occasionally losing entire afternoons or evenings because I'd just zonk out on the couch, but then I'd jolt awake after a couple of hours, completely disoriented, and with my heart racing. I eventually figured out that I was bouncing in and out of REM3 sleep because things happening around me were bleeding into my dreams, which were also getting weirdly violent.
What finally triggered the "oh, shit, this is sleep apnea" realization was when I was recovering from surgery and my blood oxygen level would crash every time I fell asleep while not on oxygen. Tube up my nose? No problem. As soon as they took it out, though? I was fine until I started to doze, and then, like a jilted hair metal fan, my saturated O2 level would dive into the 80s. When I had my sleep study, they had me at about 45 apnea-hypopnea events per hour. I also remember being PISSED when they took the CPAP mask away at the end of the study, because that was the first time I'd had two consecutive hours of sleep presumably since I was in my early teens.
TL;DR: Yes, you need a sleep study. Get on your CPAP-pilled Rip Van Winklemaxxing arc ASAP.
Just got diagnosed this week actually. Come to find out - TMJ was the first symptom that actually causes my obstructive apnea. But all my dentists ever said was there was nothing I could do about my jaw pain and popping. Shitty sleep is another one. I don't snore much at all either because I'm a side sleeper.
The first symptoms were snoring, then needing naps, and then eventually losing evenings because I was so out of it.
Weight isn’t everything when it comes to sleep apnea. I have a friend who is skinny as a twig and runs marathons, but she has terrible apnea without her cpap.
Go get yourself tested, untreated apnea will damage your heart and can kill you.
My partner is a naturally very skinny dude who unknowignly had severe sleep apnea for years without doctors or anyone even considering it. He had to suffer a severe burnout and get fired from a nursing job before it got diagnosed. He had 42 breaks in his breathing every hour on average, so not even 2 minutes of continuos sleep basically ever.
So yes, get a sleep study if you can.
Does he gave a bit of an overbite? I have a small overbite that I think is blocking my airway when I sleep, it's that or either my larger than normal Uvola is causing it.
No overbite but has had pretty severe teeth grinding while sleeping which is related. And all this is related to stress as well. Likely getting a late diagnosis of adhd soon as well.
His doctor explained his tongue relaxes so fully it blocks the airway.
Yeah us skinny-average weight dudes usually have like tounge or jaw or teeth problems when we have apnea.
In my case I think it's my slight overbite is causing my lower jaw to slide to far back when I'm sleeping and blocking my airway
Best of luck to him. I know how hell adhd can be as well.
Being sleepy and exhausted constantly, but those symptoms have been around for as long as I can remember
Did the study last year and was 2 incidents per hour under. It’s an interesting American experience to pay $150 (after insurance) to learn that I have it but not enough tobe considered properly diagnosed and prescribed any treatment.
As others have said obesity is a common cause but not the exclusive cause of it.
You can buy used and new CPAP machines online “without a prescription.” Used ones can be found on craigslist - do your due diligence of course. Treat it as a used car, so check its hours (mileage) and make sure it’s not dirty and broken. If you really prefer prescription, there’s apparently a website called Lofta that will send you a home test then prescribe you for $150-$190.
As for new machines, the vendors may sell it directly to you, or they ‘require’ a prescription which you can submit some bogus prescription, just anything saying you need it should work. It will be a bit pricy though because you usually pay in full, but usually it’s cheaper than insurance because insurance uses DME vendors which require you to rent it before allowing you pay it off and own it. Be sure to check the administrator mode to verify total hours used and other settings (DME will usually discourage you by saying there are no other settings or that it’s “exclusively” for doctors). If you do DME, you’ll have to turn on its wifi, but after you can just turn on airplane mode to cut connection and reenable it to update the firmware.
Avoid Phillips machines (cancerous). Get ResMed, but be sure to look up the global user manual and not the American one. The global one suggests longer periods of use before replacing parts whereas the American manual suggests replacing everything monthly.
2 events isn’t too bad, but still worth getting it down to 0.
Always snored a lot. But my partner told me how I stopped breathing a lot. And also, just how loud and hard it was for her to sleep with all the ruckus going on.
I was tired every day also, despite feeling like I always got a good amount of sleep like you said, 8-10 hours a day but still needing a nap and ungodly amounts of coffee.
I had gained some weight at that time which I think made it worse, but I also think I always have had it. I tested at 66 AHI which is severe.
If you can get a sleep study do it! Also, if you end up getting the diagnosis and you are in US, just a heads up that you don't need to use the DME provider that the clinic recommends. You can take the prescription elsewhere or just buy a CPAP out of pocket. My insurance was gonna make me pay $600 out of pocket to the DME, but I ended up buying my own CPAP for $800 and it was the exact model I wanted, brand new, and I never had to worry about compliance. A lot of the DME providers are garbage and the whole industry is partially a scam in the US
Be sure to download OSCAR to check how your breathing is doing as well. Some vendors won’t even require prescriptions or overlook shoddy ones. You won’t get arrested so it’s not really a risk.
One of the reasons I went with my own was to make sure I could use OSCAR. They weren't even telling me what model I was going to get. I was able to get a brand new Airsense 10 that has worked like a charm. I haven't checked my stats in a while but in general I am getting 2-3 AHI and sleeping a solid 8 hrs
Although being overweight is the common symptom, your tongue size doesn’t really change as far as I know, so if it’s large enough it may fall back and block your throat. If you ever wake up in a random panic, inhaling as if you’re gasping, you probably have sleep apnea.
There’s also central sleep apnea. This is less of a physical/weight thing, and more because your brain literally does not make the connections and order your body to continue breathing. I’ve experienced this a few times, especially when I’m sleep deprived. My body falls asleep within seconds, but I guess my brain is unable to comprehend it so I am still aware of everything but I just stop breathing. When using a CPAP machine, be aware that you may be aware and feel that you’re not breathing. I don’t believe it’s possible to pass out or die from simply not inhaling (read: no choking or obstruction, just simply holding your breath), so you’ll wake up. But, usually you ARE breathing but you just cannot feel it. In these cases, I would put my hand on my stomach so i can feel the automated inhalation and exhalation to calm myself down.
Yeah I've had those wake up panics. I also often have to wake up 2-3 times a night to go piss. I've heard that's a big symptoms as well.
It's hard to say as I suspect I may have had it most of my life, but I knew I had a problem when I developed insomnia and would wake up at least 3-5 times a night. I was chronically exhausted, and at my worst points I would feel dizzy and struggle to read. I didn't recover until I got diagnosed and spent 18 months on CPAP.