I'm with you, mine was about 79 when I finally got a sleep study.
Happy I have it sorted, but pretty worried what 10 years of that did to me.
Mine is anatomy btw, a lot of folks assume I'm obese (even the folks I went to get my cpap from when they saw my AHI) but I'm one of those unfortunate athletic folks.
I wish I had the route of losing weight open to me, but I'm still thankful technology is advanced enough to save me from an earlier death. That and being able to live without daily headaches anymore, or falling asleep driving, etc.
Probably going to get some sort of mental issue later in life though due to the earlier damage. Ah well.
Same gear - I have what they call a “floppy epiglottis”.
I’m certain my mental health would probably be better with a better night’s sleep. Having only really started using the machine, here’s hoping!
Hope it’s helping you. Once I get some proper sleep I’m going to look into more exercise - which is surprisingly hard to do when you always feel tired.
> I’m going to look into more exercise - which is surprisingly hard to do when you always feel tired.
I've recently-ish started a regular, albeit quite light, weights routine. Strangely (or maybe not), feeling tired hasn't at all correlated with my ability to do the same number of reps and sets as when I'm feeling energised. The feeling of tiredness doesn't seem connected to actual muscle fatigue, it seems to be more mental tiredness, and therefore will power, or discipline, or mental strength seems to be more likely what's needed to get into an exercise routine.
Ie. Don't let yourself get away with saying that you're too tired, it's likely a different kind of tired than the one that will hold back exercise.
I've actually felt less tired coming out of a session than going in (endorphins, adrenaline effects etc.)
(with the disclaimer that this is very much a subjective, your-mileage-may-vary kind of situation, and also I'm speaking from entirely outside of your experience of always feeling tired)
Do you mean you have lots of muscle, and that weight is what is causing the apnea?
I'm pretty sure I have the same issue. I lost 15-20 lbs of muscle when I lost gym access for 1.5 yrs of COVID, and my girlfriend mentioned my snoring got better. I've gain it all back now though.
Did you try forcing yourself to sleep on your side? I found if I roll onto my back while I sleep I frequently would either snore or stop breathing to the point where it would cause me to wake up.
To keep from sleeping on my back, I now put a foam roller under the back of my shirt before I go to bed. It's eliminated my snoring and help me sleep much better. Other people pin a tennis ball to the back of their shirt for the same reason.
I bring this up because I think many people are prescribed a CPAP machine to solve their sleep problems when positional therapy would be a more effective, less expensive solution.[1]
In my case, I have tried this and it didn’t work. Unfortunately I have what is known as a “floppy epiglottis”, which is what is preventing me from breathing.
With the CPAP machine I am definitely getting a better night’s sleep.
My father got 3 stents inserted during an angiogram. The reason was most likey that he was suffering from sleep apnea (his breathing stopped around 60 times an hour and his o2 saturation dropped to 50/60) without knowing it.
In his case it was central sleep apnea but after he got a CPAP machine his o2 saturation went back up to > 90%.
One easy way to check this is to wear a pusle oximater overnight and check the o2 saturation.
You buy a machine that pushes air into your lungs while you sleep.
You then spend the first half hour of the each morning feeling like shit as you try to get all the air that went down the wrong pipe out of your stomach.
(Yes, that's what happens after sleep doctors have done multiple passes of calibration on it. They are doctors, they aren't wizards.)
I luckily haven’t had that… I have had some dry mouth though. I do feel more refreshed so I think it is definitely helpful.
In NSW, Australia, if you have a CPAP machine you can tell your electricity company (a doctor fills in a form) and they cannot disconnect your electricity for non-payment, and the government pays a small rebate. Just in case anyone else from my state is reading this :-)
I can’t imagine what sort of damage it has done to me.