I have been having extremely uncomfortable sleep lately because I will wake up at least 20 times a night to pee even if I stop drinking water or any fluids by 6PM and will actually have to urinate every time so it is not anxiety related, i genuinely have to pee. I read that this is a symptom of sleep apnea. Additionally, I do often stop breathing if I am sleeping upright so I am a chronic side sleeper. I also believe that this is why I grind and clench my teeth as well. I plan on getting a sleep study soon but I am pretty sure that I have sleep apnea and for a while I thought it was panic attacks but I definitely think it is sleep apnea now. Anyone else have these symptoms? I am overweight but I am trying to lose weight. I am 175 and around 5'5 so I don't think I am extremely overweight. I am sure there are people who are a healthy weight with sleep apnea. Anyway, I just want to ask you all what were the first signs for you that you may have sleep apnea?

Btw, my issues began last year and I really did think it was panic attacks at first but it doesn't really make any sense anymore. I do have anxiety but it doesn't explain why every time I sleep upright I will literally stop breathing and start gasping for air.

So I was actually making progress with the CPAP machine, but caught a flu the last week and now finding myself unable to sleep again.

The best way I can describe it It feels like I'm just half sleeping with the mask on. Where I'll definitely pass out but still be conscious

Then again because of my genetics my sleep specialist believes I might be under breathing I Digeorge syndrome which affects a lot of my body systems.

This started a few years ago and has gotten worse. I don't even know what kind of doctor to go to to ask about this.

Sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night with my airway 100% blocked. No matter how hard I push or pull air I can't get ANY. Every time so far my airway has slowly opened up before I lose consciousness or die.

This also happened once while doing deadlifts with very short breaks at the gym. I was super out of breath intentionally, but then my airway felt like it was swelling shut. I tried to stay calm and bend over and breath but it kept getting tighter and tighter until I was sure I was going to lose consciousness or die. Eventually after what seemed like eternity (every time) my airway started to open again.

Water getting in my airway also causes this almost every time now. Just drinking water and getting a little bit down the wrong pipe should just make me cough. But now it causes my airway to instantaneously snap shut with zero airflow. It happened again yesterday and I went out to the sidewalk so that at least someone could find me, because again I was sure I was going to lose consciousness or die. Again it slowly opened up and I was able to breath again.

I know this isn't normal sleep apnea, but I wake up unable to breathe and have no idea where to post this. Who should I see? What is this? If I pass out will it eventually open up or will I die?

It's gotten so bad I have anxiety about it now.

I’m literally afraid to sleep cause every time I do I wake up feeling so horrible. It feels like a hangover and a concussion with a sense of foreboding dread. And my body will be so tired and needing to take a nap in the day so I set alarms for 1 hour long naps to not sleep to long at a time cause the longer I sleep the worse the sleep hangover effect is. I’m really really hoping a CPAP will help me because this is miserable.

Honestly dont know if its a placebo effect from feeling overly optimistic about getting treatment for my health problems but last night i had my first night on CPAP, woke up to a smiley face and a 9.5 out of 10 on the machine feeling rested and alert.

No nodding off on the train commute to work and so far non at the desk and to top it off im in a brilliant mood for the first time in a long time

AMAZING

I got a pulse ox because I suspected I had some sleep apnea, but it turns out I only drop in oxygen levels when falling asleep. I drop to maybe like 75-85%. Rest of the night it's fine. Is there anything I can do to prevent this or should I see a doctor?

tldr: healthy 18m with crooked nose suddenly develops mid sleep panic attacks, then regular panic attacks pls advise

i (18m) don't think myself to be a candidate for sleep apnea. i've been a varsity wrestler all throughout high school, so i'm not out of shape.

in my sophomore year, i started to notice my septum was out of place. it didn't affect my sleep much, but it made breathing out of my nose while wrestling hard.

now midway thru my senior season, i started to wake up in the middle of the night with panic attacks. i thought it was either something to do with acid reflux, or overall stress about my performance. i fixed my diet, and finished out my season with a performance that made me happy, and i still had panic attacks. i would find myself up in the middle of the night for no reason.

i started to have panic attacks during the day, too. i finally saw a doctor after almost getting into a car accident while having a panic attack driving to jiujitsu. my doctor put me on an ssri (lexapro) and an as needed chill pill (hydroxyzine or however the fuck u spell it)

a week in and i am doing worse, still having panic attacks in the night, and now i am taking naps during school. i woke up from a nap in our study hall period and felt so sick to my stomach and anxious that i walked straight out the door in the middle of the school day.

someone took a picture of me while i was taking that nap, and i noticed that i was breathing thru my nose. they also said "i was so hard to wake up"

is it possible that all this is because of my stupid fucking nose? i really hope that's the answer because i am dying here. i feel like i can't do anything anymore without getting a panic attack, and now im even afraid to go to sleep.

what do i do? should i go to the doctor asap? what do i even tell him? i feel like it's not normal for someone my age to have sleep apnea...

Hello, I am currently living with severe CSA with no machine. Which as most of you know is a constant struggle with sleepiness and lack of energy. The big one is my lack of energy causing my everyday life great pains.

So i was wondering if there is any tips people have for keeping my energy high during the day to get things done. As naturally as possible, nothing like Adderall or pills of any kind. Like is there a type of food people recommend for energy or maybe certain exercises. Anything helps, If it works for you it might help me.

Side Note i was also wondering if there are any pillows people found effective as well. I am in the market for some new stuff, but i don't want to spend money and then have it be booty. I was looking at the OpenAir pillow for myself but its pretty costly. So i was looking for advice on that as well

Thank you in advance for the advice and suggestions. Have a great day!

After ignoring my symptoms for years, and after half a year of medical back and forth: Now I’m finally on the way to the hospital to get my CPAP. I’m so excited about this. I really hope this will work for me. I wanna be able to sleep. I wanna be able to do things during the day without falling asleep on the couch. I wanna sleep next to my boyfriend without interrupting his sleep or worrying him about mine. Reading the stories on here brings me so much joy for y’all. I really hope this works for me too. I hope tonight I will get my first good night of sleep in years 🥳

Note: I have Aetna insurance; the DME my doctor suggested is Nationwide Medical

I qualify for a nice discount through on CPAP supplies and certain machines through ID.me online. There are a lot of devices on sale at the moment, so this got me thinking--If I purchase a CPAP machine online with my own funds, out of pocket, would insurance still potentially cover supplies? If so, do I WANT them to? I've seen a lot of stories about people receiving the wrong supplies or getting them more often than they really need.

My doctor sent my prescription to a DME, and I haven't heard from them yet because they're apparently still figuring out the details with my insurer. I know you all don't know about my finances or my personal insurance coverage information, but my in-network coinsurance is 10% and my out of network coinsurance is 30%. I'm debating purchasing my machine and supplies on my own and asking my insurer to reimburse me (this would fall under the 30% coinsurance if those claims are approved).

Is there anything I'm not considering here? Since this is my first time potentially working with a DME, I'm wondering how much time and energy I should devote to dealing with them and all of their nuances as opposed to getting what I want and sending the bills to my insurer. I can't have my phone near me at all times at work, so keeping up with doctors' phone calls is half the battle!

Another question--If I do end up buying my own machine (likely the Resmed Airsense 10/11), do I need to send my doctor that information somehow, or do I give them information from the device (like a serial number) and they can monitor it without me having to do anything extra? I understand they have SIM cards to wirelessly transmit my data to the app and to the doctor, but I'm not sure if that actually means the doctor, or if it's the DME instead. I think I'd like my doctor to keep tabs on me for the first 6-12 months of my CPAP usage.

I'm new to this. I appreciate your help in advance!

Anyone have success with maxillary expansion in fixing their sleep apnea? Just had a consultation and the first line of recommendation was MARPE. AHI was 27 without oral appliance and 12 with it on.

What's the average leak rate on ResMed machines for you guys?

Hypothetically speaking,let’s say that your melatonin hormone doesn’t work anymore.

What do you do?

I've had my cpap since August. It took a while but I noticed a difference. I didn't want to nap during the day and had energy. I've been regularly using it (only missing a night here or there) and I've notice the past 3-4 weeks that the daily fatigue is returning. I don't like my sleep doctor unfortunately. But maybe I need to suck it up and call. But he's not provided very good answers thus far. I feel like he thinks one size fits all. And it most certainly doesn't. Sigh. Just dreading it.

Hi all! I was just diagnosed with OSA and am starting my CPAP journey. I’m hoping for some suggestions/insight on picking the right mask. My primary challenge is picking one that will accommodate my septum piercing. An obvious option is, of course, a full face mask but I tend to be a side sleeper and am wondering if there’s a more comfortable option. Any suggestions would be much appreciated! TIA!

I desperately need a hive mind right now. For the last year I have been wanting to rule out whether or not I have sleep apnea. My son had it and I majorly clench my teeth. I recently learned that you should rule out sleep apnea if you clench or grind. I don't snore, have good energy and don't really have any other symptoms. I was at my OB about 3 weeks ago for some fertility testing and asked if I could get a sleep study just to rule it out once and for all. Between then and now I learned that a sleep study takes a long time to get scheduled. I'm still waiting for a call and that I'm pregnant. I've been more severely grinding lately and decided maybe this will take too long and decided to order a Lofta test; which tests at home. The test came today and I started having some second thoughts. First, is this going to give in accurate info since it's a home test? Is just going to cause me worry at a very vulnerable time in my life? But on the other side of the coin is if I do have it and I wait longer to know will that affect my pregnancy or my health? I'm starting to wonder if I should just wait for an in lab study (which could take months). I know this is extremely personal, but I have been tormented all day as to what to do and any insight or opinions would be incredibly helpful to me right now. Thank you so much!

I've seen some things linking preeclampsia to undiagnosed sleep apnea.

Have any of y'all had preeclampsia and do you think sleep apnea contributed?

I got severe preeclampsia at 25 weeks of pregnancy. They were able to keep me pregnant to 30 weeks and my son was born at 30 weeks and four days. He was so beautiful. I had my Owen for four days before he passed away unexpectedly from a brain bleed.

I miss him every day. I had breathing issues pregnant and when I complained in the hospital my oxygen was dipping into the low 70s.

When they studied his placenta it was in the third percentile. My baby Owen didn't get enough oxygen and neither did his placenta.

I'm so thankful for my CPAP and sleep apnea diagnosis and that I have a chance to heal. But God damn I didn't want to find out like this. I've seen that there are some links between preeclampsia and untreated sleep apnea.

I wanted to see if anyone else had a similar experience and what their future pregnancies and health looked like in the future.

I have hope for healing, but I just want my son back.

I’m on cpap therapy, but sometimes I wake up with inflamed or my hands throbbing or swollen; I think I’m having some circulation issues, anybody experience the same? I’m having tingly, weakness and nerve problems at the moment. I have a feeling it’s a circulation problem.

So I don’t have my latest study on-hand fyi I only glimpsed it. I know there are other things besides AHI to keep in mind, which I will discuss with my doctor. That said…here’s my sleep study history. 4 years ago I had an in-lab study and turned out to have an AHI of 8.7. Been on cpap since.

Lately I’ve looked into getting a mouthguard but the doc said he needed an up to date study. So I got an at home study. I know they’re pretty accurate but not as accurate as in-lab. Got to quickly look at my results today…4.1 AHÍ. It says I don’t have sleep apnea. I still have to talk to my doctor about the complete results so I’m not reaching any conclusions yet. But was curious…has anyone here ever heard of in-lab studies being wrong or overestimating the apnea?

I posted recently that I'd just gotten a CPAP and was having a lot of difficulty getting used to it. After receiving some great input from other users, including very helpful advice on adjusting my setup, I am really starting to become more comfortable. I still have trouble staying asleep all night, but the wake-ups are less frequent and easier to get back to sleep from. And most importantly, the CPAP is definitely doing its job. According to the MyAir app, I'm getting 0-.5 events per hour, which is a huge improvement over the 10+ events per hour that were measured during my sleep study.

I really appreciate how freely people in this subreddit share information and advice! Thanks so much for being such a great support community.

I've just consulted with Dr. Kasey Li about my options and mentioned to him what another jaw surgeon recommended, which was DJS.

Dr. Li said pretty much any jaw surgeon is going to recommend jaw surgery as the solution for me, because that is what they do. Which makes sense.

Dr. Li said he would strongly recommend expansion over DJS, even though he's a well known jaw surgeon.

Is there anybody else that I should consult with that has experience with the various available options so I can get additional unbiased advise?

My AHI was at 14 when I initially got diagnosed with sleep apnea. I tried cpap initially and I could not tolerate it, I was ripping my mask off when the pressure would ramp up in the middle of the night. So I just got an oral device and my AHI after my follow up is down to 8 with the device. Well my doctor now recommends combing therapies. With the oral device, he says I should be able to use a low enough pressure to be able to tolerate it. That was my problem initially, I would have no issue being able to fall asleep when the pressure was low, it’s when it ramps up to max in the middle of the night that messes me up. Has anyone tried this?

Hi everyone, I have insanely bad sleep anxiety, so commenting here is triggering for me. However, I'm short on answers for my problem and I'm hoping I can gain some insight here.

My problem: I seem to hold my breath (or worse, maybe I just stop breathing) as I start drifting to sleep. It doesn't happen every time I fall asleep, but I have noticed that it mostly happens when I try to sleep in my bed (slight incline). I could be sitting in a chair and begin to fall asleep and majority of the time, I won't do the "breath-holding thing" as I call it (although it has happened).

The only time it doesn't happen (in bed) is when I'm so exhausted, I'll just fall asleep while watching TV or scrolling through my phone. However, again, if I'm laying there, closing my eyes (counting sheep) and trying to get some sleep, I'll hold (or stop breathing) the moment I start drifting to sleep.

I'll try and try again, but I keep holding my breath until I get so properly freaked out and frustrated that I just get out of bed and do something else to keep myself busy. I have noticed that whenever I get up from one of these episodes, I have a series of belches/burps to the point where I wondered if there was a correlation.

I had this problem a couple years ago, then I lost a bunch of weight and I didn't experience it. However, I unfortunately put a bunch of that weight back on and the problem seems to have resurfaced after a 2-year absence.

- I'm 40 years old and to my knowledge, I have not had a stroke.

- I have asthma and reflux, and I'm a mouth breather.

- I stress a lot and have high anxiety - work, life, health.

- Did a sleep study in 2020 and was diagnosed with severe OSA - I was told that there was no indication of central sleep apnea then, but I should say that I don't recall ever having this breath holding/stop breathing problem back then.

- Lost 60 lbs, stopped snoring and had much better sleep, had a turbinate ablation procedure and sleep improved even more.

- Turbinate regrew after about a year, stress increased, put on weight and started to snore again - now doing this breath-holding/no breathing thing.

- I'm also the kind of person who, when standing in front of an A/C (or sticking your head out the window of a car while driving fast) - basically high wind to the face - I'll feel like I'm suffocating or drowning. So, CPAP/BiPAP has been a major struggle for me.

We have a severe doctor shortage here and most earliest appointments for any kind of diagnosis are many months away. I also had a really bad experience during the sleep study which involved an inattentive technician and now I have major PTSD associated with "sleep."

Thank you for hearing me out.

I work a variety of shifts and never have a set schedule. Some days I feel more tired than others depending on how much sleep I can get. For example the last few days I've been getting 5-6 hours of sleep due to early shifts. Last night I slept 11 hours, but it was great sleep and I feel pretty good. Those of you who have have success with CPAP.. is this normal/okay? To sleep for more than 8 hours? MyAir says I had 1.8 events per hour which is less than it normally says. I think I keep thinking things with CPAP are cut and dry but I realize it's not that simple. I just completed my 2nd week with mine so I'm just trying to understand better.

Hey, I realised it’s coming up to a year since sharing the first post on my Somnowell device.

Another year in and I’m still as good as the first day I’ve got it.

I have regular dental check-ups and see my hygienist every 3 months (my teeth and dental hygiene are so important to me). I’ve experienced no pain or ache, and certainly no underbite or visible negative affects from using it.

It’s one of my most important possessions and it’s allowed me to sleep with my partner every night since getting it.

I constantly read things about CPAP but this is a successful alternative. Happy to answer any questions etc.

https://www.reddit.com/r/SleepApnea/s/wi1WPT4LVv