Snoring and surgery options

So I have been to 3 sleep studies in the last 10 years or so and have moderate sleep apnea according to the last overnight test from about 5 years ago...Each time I get a CPAP machine but cannot adjust to it and abandoned it. Yesterday I downloaded and used one of those Android phone apps that records your sleep time so you can play it back and hear when you snore, how loudly and how frequently...It gave me a number of 44. Looks like I had one 'epic' peak lol, and mostly just under that, as far as loud snores …what I'm curious about, does snoring alone make you tired? If the snoring sound means the soft tissue is rubbing against one another, does that automatically mean you have sleep apnea and your brain is not getting enough oxygen or whatever? I listened to the recordings and I don't really gasp, like some who actually stop breathing...just on deeper breaths I snore. Like a chainsaw. :) I wake up immensely tired, no matter how many hours of sleep I get....I have tried 3 or 4 types of full masks because I can't keep my mouth shut once I fall asleep, but none have really worked. I'm a slide sleeper, and a full face mask tends to get bumped out of position because my head is half buried in the pillow and I would get woken up by the hissing of escaping air from the mask failing to seal. I've also tried about 3 different oral appliances and they all were a dismal failure, since I drool on top of everything else and sleep with my mouth open, they easily slide out of place , or, once my mouth opens, stop being effective...the time in the sleep study with the CPAP and mask, I made sure I went in very tired, so I could go right to sleep, which I did..but I still woke up tired, so that made me wonder if snoring alone could make you wake up tired as opposed to stopping breathing.....What I'm now considering is surgery , because of the intrusiveness of the mask doesn't really let me ever get to deep sleep, plus I have to get up a couple of times a night to go to the bathroom sometimes.....Maybe I just answered my own question LOL...Snoring + waking to go to the bathroom = tired. Anyway, I think I have to do something because as I've put on a few more pounds in my 50's, the snoring is louder now and I'm so unbelievably tired and lethargic thruout the day, it has had a negative impact on everything I do now I think. So with that in mind, has anyone gone the surgery route? If so any considerations and what is the recovery and recovery time like?

Thank you! Mark

The pic is about a 30 minute nap for yesterday...

Most people who have reported on various surgeries have found them painful and sometimes ineffective. Your problem is the struggle with CPAP. The snoring and feeling tired are effects of OSA and not the cause so find a solution where CPAP IS effective. Sounds like your mask issue is at the root of your inability to use CPAP. I use a boil & bite mouth guard and I don't drool nor does it come out. It keeps my mouth shut as my jaw otherwise tends to droop when I sleep and the mouth guard eliminates the problem You didn't mention which mask you use but I use an Amara View as it is most comfortable and has lowest leaks for me (maybe not for everyone?). The reason I felt tire during the day and dropped off to sleep at very very inopportune times is low blood O2 levels at night for LONG periods. When you stop breathing (OSA), your blood O2 can drop dangerously low.

Not sure snore apps on your phone will get to the core of your sleep issues. Get back in and get another sleep study followed by a titration study to get a good prescription and figure out how to make therapy work rather than give up on it.

Wow , thanks for the info....Surprising that surgery would be ineffective to me, if the issue of snoring and only snoring is soft tissue vibrating together...I would think surgery would totally alleviate that. Thanks for the info, I'll do more research for sure but the CPAP is out of the question. I cannot sleep with any mask on my face and it doesn't matter the mask , they all get pushed out of place eventually during the night for me as a side sleeper who shifts rolls over several times a night lol. Plus the intrusiveness of it makes me feel like the poor guy in the alien movie when it latched onto his face ha.

Have you considered an oral sleep apnea appliance?They are quite effective in eliminating snoring and can successfully treat moderate OSA in the majority of cases. Arthur B. Luisi, Jr., D.M.D., The Naples Center for Dental Sleep Medicine.