Exhausted

I am a 29 yr old female who recently was diagnosed with sleep apnea. I have had my CPAP machine for 5 days now and have used the machine consistently. I was wondering if anyone out there felt WORSE after starting to use a CPAP machine? I have always struggled with energy levels, as far back as i can remember, but I worked through it and always got through the day. When i started using the CPAP machine, every single day afterwards, I am so exhausted and drained that i can barely make it. I am very discouraged about the outcome so far and am not sure what to do. I tried explaining to my doctor what was going on but all she said was to stick with it and i'll "get used to it." It's not a matter of getting used to it really - i can sleep with a bomb going off in the background. I can even tell that I have been getting more quality sleep, and that I don't even wake up to use the bathroom anymore at night. But i'm more drained that I have ever been! Help?

First, welcome to the site. I would recommend you begin monitoring the effectiveness of your therapy yourself. Not sure if the doctor you talked with actually saw the results. If you are sleeping through the night after beginning therapy and didn't sleep through the night, this indicates you are getting into a deeper state of sleep. Next, if you are monitoring results and AHI is acceptable, you very likely have some secondary source of the tiredness. If you are armed with results of your PAP therapy and these are good, then your doctor should be pursuing alternate reasons for your exhaustion. Oxygen levels should be looked at as well as blood work. Since I am not a medical pro I am not sure I can rattle off all the reasons for being tired after a good night's sleep but I am sure there are many. It appears your doctor is satisfied to try PAP therapy and hopes the exhaustion problem is mitigated but in my experience, if you are sleeping soundly, you might want to try a second opinion and the tiredness issue you are having.

There is another recent thread about this very issue. I think there are a lot of us in the same boat-or similar. I have read that it can take as long as three months to start feeling less tired, as your body is making up for huge deficits. I think we all hear about people for whom it was an immediate game changer. But after spending time with my new machine (I call him Sven, and my husband is not jealous), and on this site, I think the "game changing" thing is the exception and not the rule.
Lucky you for sleeping better at night! I still wake in the middle of the night, and often curse Sven. I hate him, I love him. But I mostly hate him. Good Luck!!

It is not uncommon to feel worse when you have just started using CPAP. When you brain has not been able to sleep properly because of OSA and then the OSA is suddenly removed (by CPAP) what can happen is that your brain gets really excited and has a little party. Instead of getting the normal amount of each stage of sleep, it tries to make up for lost time and get way more of the stages it has been missing out on than you would normally have in one night. This is called rebounding. This can leave you feeling very tired and thick headed until you brain settles down into more normal sleep architecture. Hopefully it will pass in a little time.

By the way, I think the "game changing" thing is probably more rule than exception (based on my many thousands of patients), but that a site for people struggling with OSA and CPAP will not reflect that. This is where people come when they have problems (or to offer help, obviously).

Hey there im new this is my first post and ive been using my cpap for about 3 weeks now and let me tell you my first few days of use it was amazing i woke up a new me energized confident ready to take the day head on, however now that im in my 3rd week im back to how i was tired my cpap scores are always 95-100 good mask seal im just sick and tired of bieng sick and tired just got some blood work done to check vitamins amd thyroid and testosterone its very demotivating how the cpap helped me so much the first few days now its back to how i was i cant get to the bottom of it

I have been using Resmed Airsense for 14 mos. I check my stats, eat healthy, drink 8 glasses water, exercise and sleep 7-8 hours daily. I feel horrible and can barely get out of bed each morning. The only positive I feel is more stamina. Once you start this treatment you cannot stop, I have tried. What a racket these sleep Drs. have going here!!! My Dr. will not believe me when I tell him it is making me sick. It has also given me aerophagia, terrible bloating. My symptoms were servere (33 events/hour). I am working on getting a dental appliance, perhaps that will help some IDK. I have never felt so horrible.

The first night I used a CPAP (fixed at 7), I woke up the following morning with so much energy. It is like my body was rejuvenated. Before using the CPAP, I did not even know that my body was tired. I just kept going. And then I went on with my CPAP therapy. It is helping me a lot.

I've fallen on this sight through research on my own. I'm so exhausted right now I can't think and stumble a lot. I've had my ResMed s9 since 2014. I've never been under the care of a Dr. I'm seeing after research this is my problem. I know I'm have apnea even with the machine. I feel like I did in 2010 right before my first sleep study. Stupidly I didn't really know I needed to be monitored. My sleep machine supplies come from California and a "therapist" talks to me once in a while. They don't give any numbers. I do not know how to monitor my own machine. I've been drug tired for a month now. Today is the worst. I just called my GP. I found a sleep Dr. Now to get in asap. Guess I've blown it for not being monitored.......