I have yet to be diagnosed officially, but am pretty sure that I have sleep apnea. I've been getting "jolted" out of my sleep for the past few weeks, right as I'm falling asleep sometimes my brain gets a quick kickstart sensation, other times, it's a flutter in the chest, and sometimes, I catch myself snoring with it, but not all the time. It has effected my mood and of course my energy levels. I'm hoping that it isn't sleep apnea, but am even more araid that if it is, it's central sleep apnea caused by some unknown disease. Ive had several heart tests that come back fine. Im 26 y/o, 175 pounds and aside from being hyperthyroid, which I thought was treated when they took half of it out, am healthy to my knowledge. Im just super worried about some neurological disease causing me to have central, which is way harder to treat from what I've read. All in all, I'm mostly ready to start sleeping again.
Currently am in the process of waiting to get a sleep study scheduled, and going to see a pulmonologist on Wednesday. I just wanna get ahead of the curve and get some info on how to deal with sleep apnea in the meantime until I get treated. I hope if I end up on the cpap it provides the relief some say it does. Not sleeping/being afraid to sleep sucks.
Thanks for reading.
Don't be hesitant about this. When I got my diagnosis and started using CPAP, I FINALLY found myself getting good sleep, instant energy and just a feeling of being better than I had in a long time. The CPAP machines have come so far that they are nothing like I thought they would be -- and there has not been any problems getting used to sleeping with it. Believe me, it's worth the effort you may have to put into getting all this set up.
I have Hashimoto's disease. Horrendous nightmares that woke me were part of the symptoms that started in my mid-thirties. They were misdiagnosed as many things for 5 years until a simple blood test indicated little thryroid function. (Actually, I'd had Hashimoto's all my life; times of low thyroid functioning coincide with times of severe childhood nightmares. As a toddler, doctors were unable to determine why I was losing so much hair. I just never told my parents about the nightmares. When they were bad, I got up in the middle of the night and slept outside my parents' door.) For me, the nightmares stopped once my Synthroid dose was established. My endocrinologist said that the dreams were related to hormone fluctuations that come with poor thryroid function. My sleep apnea is related somewhat to my slightly enlarged thryroid but mostly to the weight I gained when my thyroid nearly quit and then regained when severe arthritis interfered with sleep. So - after all that - check with your endocrinologist, too.
So the good news is that even if you have central apnea, a C-Pap machine will help. If you have obstructive apnea you have multiple options for treatment besides C-Pap. As young as you are, your options are probably higher than someone in their 80s. Central apnea is rare but treatable. Don't lose sleep worrying about what you might have.
Suggestion Newoptions, These threads are often long and the original posting may have been some time in the past. When someone posts something off the original poster's topic a bit, the thread can start to wind in new directions. If you want to replace to a specific post, as in the case with this thread, there is a REPLY LINK (but in lower case) on the bottom of the post you wish to reply to. Using this function rather than the Write a Reply tab makes your post relate to a specific post in a thread. Hope this makes sense and thanks for your insightful comments so far. While there are a number of dentists who post on this board, fewer sleep specialists NOT in the dental field pop in with opinions or help. It is sad that this category of specialist feels they need to confine their expertise to their office spaces. We do have sleep technician from Australia pop in now and again and it is most helpful to have professionals mix with patients.
Central sleep apnoea is almost never treatable with CPAP. This is because all CPAP does is open you airways up. This is effective in treating OBSTRUCTIVE sleep apnoea as the problem in that case is an obstruction caused by airway collapse. However, Central sleep apnoea involves malfunction of the breathing muscles such that they stop pushing air in and out for short periods. The reason that CPAP almost never works for Central sleep apnoea is that it doesn't matter how much your airway is opened up if them muscles aren't pushing the air in and out. I say "almost never" because I have seen instances of what appears to be central apnoea being corrected by CPAP, but they are rare. In most cases bi-livel ventilation, or Bi-PAP, of some sort is required. The difference is that a BiPAP breathes in and out with the patient, moving up and down between 2 pressures. It also monitors the time between breaths and can add in some breaths if the patient doesn't breathe themselves within a given time. BiPAP is also used for people who don't have gaps in their breathing but just don't push enough air in and out so their oxygen drops and, in some cases, their CO2 rises (respiratory failure). Since BiPAP augments your natural respiratory effort and helps you push more air in and out, it can be very effective in treating this condition. The machines look identical apart from the name on them. It is worth knowing the difference so that you can understand your treatment and make sure it is appropriate. If your doctor (and it should be a doctor) recommends BiPAP (or VPAP or bi-level) treatment then it means you have something other than just simple OSA. Either that or they are looking to make some money because a BiPAP usually costs $AU 5000 - $AU 8000 (you'll have to do the conversion). ASV (Auto Servo Ventilation) is a subset of BiPAP that was invented specifically to treat Cheyne-Stokes breathing (a specific from of central sleep apnoea) in the setting of low CO2. It is NOT effective in helping improve ventilation for people who's muscles are weak. Having said this, may people in the medical field (including doctors) don't really understand ASV, see the "Auto" part of the name, assume they can prescribe it to anyone with central events and it will magically fix them. This is often not the case. Setting any bi-level device properly is a complicated process and should always be done in the setting of a formal, in-lab sleep study conducted by an experienced technician. Sorry to bang on a bit, but I hope this clarifies the whole situation a bit. If you have questions, feel free to ask.
If my long winded ramble above did not make this clear, don't worry. Central sleep apnoea can be treated too, and from your end there would be little difference in the treatment. So relax, there is every chance that you will fixed up better than before without too much fuss. And remember, keep asking questions until you get the answers you need. Especially of your doctors. They are paid very well to answer you questions.
