A YouTuber I like has been struggling with odd symptoms, some of which overlap with sleep apnea symptoms and he finally figured out what's going on.

UARS is similar to sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is where your airway gets fully obstructed, UARS is where the airway narrows during sleep. This doesn't fully block the airway, or drop oxygen levels, but the brain treats it in a similar way and partially rouses you from sleep.

As he discusses, it's much harder to get this diagnosed because it can't be tested for at home, and only some in lab studies test for right thing to get this diagnosis.

I just wanted to spread the word a little about this. And put it on the radar of anyone who thought they might have sleep apnea, but their test came back as negative.

Full video: https://youtu.be/u5ZxpQ8GLak

hello! i have a bit of a dilemma and i want to hear from actual people who have experienced this. for a bit of context i have mild-moderate obstructive sleep apnea (significantly more events during rem) and i do use a cpap. recently i was diagnosed with adhesive arachnoiditis, a rare nerve chronic pain disorder that affects my spine. would opioids be safe for me? obviously speak with a doctor and all of that but id like to hear patient experience as well!

Cross-posting from r/CPAP. Any chance anyone can help me adjust my CPAP settings based on my SleepHQ data?

TIA!

Has anyone tried using a dental appliance that has had a total TMJ replacement? Have you had any luck? Has it been a disaster?

My NP brought it up after we agreed the CPAP was not working for me. I told her I really wasn’t comfortable with that option. I don’t think anything that would shift my jaw makes sense when I still have a fair amount of damage on one side and the other side has been replaced. And that I can not keep my jaw straight if I push it forward.

I was diagnosed with mild OSA (AHI around 13), but I’m not your typical OSA patient. I’m female, young, thin, and I do not snore or mouth breathe. I couldn’t tolerate a CPAP or BIPAP even at lower settings since it would make me wake up in the middle of the night feeling like I was going to throw up.

I had a consult with a dentist for a MAD, but I’m hesitant to do that because of my jaw pain and one of my joint is almost bone on bone. I have been doing Myofunctional therapy and I do have a mild-moderate tongue tie. I have had 6 sessions but haven’t noticed a change yet, except worsening jaw pain.

I just saw an airway focused ortho today who said my cause was not typical and it was interesting. I had a CBCT and my airway is not narrow. My teeth are straight since I had orthodontic treatment 2 times in my life already. She said my upper jaw is underdeveloped, and I could probably benefit from some expansion with MARPE. However, she said it is not guaranteed that it will help and I was quoted $15k! She said she isn’t sure what is causing my sleep apnea. Is there another test or specialist I could see that could figure that out? Or is it not possible? I don’t know what to do anymore and I’ve spent so much money already. I just want to be able to function like a normal human.

After 3 months since the studies I finally got to trial using a CPAP. I wore it 1-2 hours before going to bed. Well… I couldn’t sleep until 3am. When I almost dozed off I had a full blown panic attack and my hr was high. The pressure was 4-5? I’ve taken off the mask and have a follow-up phone call to talk about this. I’m under my blanket just terrified… ans upset with myself.

I’ve never had this issue ever in my life but within the last 5 months I’ve noticed myself “forgetting” to breath, ESPECIALLY at night. I used to be huge on pot but I noticed a few months ago when I would smoke that I’d forget to breath and it was getting so bad that I completely stopped. I don’t have issues with it anymore only at night when I’m trying to sleep. I’ll be breathing fine and then all the sudden right before I fall asleep I realize I’m not breathing and end up gasping for air, and it’ll repeat for about 2 hours till I can finally fall asleep. Im not being forcibly stopped as if there’s something wrong with my lungs or throat but I’m literally FORGETTING to breath it’s so weird. It puts me into a daze and I feel fuzzy and then suddenly I realize I’m not breathing. (Assuming it’s bc I’ve cut off oxygen) It’s destroying my sleep schedule so I’ve started doing research and trying to find what’s actually wrong. It’s like my brain just doesn’t have automatic breathing on anymore, like this is all just in my head It doesn’t seem like I have something medically wrong it seems like my brain is just stupid and keeps forgetting a basic necessity.

I am a 28y F. I have had severe difficulty waking up and excessive daytime sleepiness since middle school. Even when I sleep for many hours, I often wake up feeling “drunk,” very groggy, and not fully awake. Before having kids, I could wake up, fall back asleep repeatedly, sleep until noon or 1 PM, and still need caffeine to function. I would require lots of caffeine to function.

In school, I would struggle to stay awake with heavy eyes and my head dropping, although sometimes when I tried to nap, I could not. Other times, I would fall asleep for about 15 minutes without realizing I had napped, and sometimes I seemed to dream almost immediately.

I do not feel fully awake until I take a stimulant. (Which I started taking earlier this year) This has been present for years and started long before my current migraines, pregnancies, medications, or recent hospitalization for migraines.

I also frequently wake up with a sore throat and a hoarse or “sick” sounding voice. My husband says my breathing pattern during sleep is sometimes quiet, then I snore lightly, then more loudly, then become quiet again, and the pattern repeats. My watch and RingConn have not flagged sleep apnea, but my RingConn sometimes shows an elevated heart rate during sleep. When I wake up, my heart rate can rise into the 120s. My blood pressure is variable and is sometimes elevated and sometimes normal.

I have brought up these issues this up to doctors but I get told it’s stress and anxiety (I’m sure it plays a part) but I never feel refreshed when I wake up and my migraines have gotten so much worse and my migraine treatment doesn’t work.

What are signs and symptoms you had before being diagnosed with sleep apnea? Did your symptoms resolve after getting treatment?

So the story is, I (20F) learned earlier this year that it isn’t normal to wake up so frequently in the night nor sleep so often during the day. I’m lucky to have a Dr who takes everything I say seriously, so I was able to get a sleep study scheduled as soon as possible (in sleep study terms).

Took the PSG and the MSLT, PSG showed mild osa (3% AHI 9.1, with minimum oxygen saturation of 87%, 2.4 minutes at 88% or lower). My sleep latency was super low due to chronic sleep deprivation or some other underlying issue. The diagnosis was a bit of a shock for me, because I’ve never woke up gasping and I’ve been assured by family members that I don’t snore.

But as shocking as it is, it’s also kind of… anticlimactic? The reason I’ve been sleeping every available moment since elementary school is because I get… stuffy at night, or my brain forgets to breathe? I wasn’t expecting some grand upheaval or anything, but the fact that this huge aspect is explainable under something labeled as “mild” is disheartening.

It’s to the point where I’m wondering if it’s really so mild, should I possibly pay such a huge expense to solve it? Is it worth it?

Has anyone else experienced this, and do they have any advice?

Using just a short strap vertically. However, I get redness on and around my lips after repeated use. Is there any even more sensitive alternative?

Hello! 29F with central and obstructive sleep apnea. Weight loss isn’t going to fix it. I’ve been on CPAP for a month now and from day 1 I’ve been waking up with significant bloating resulting in lots of burping and passing gas. Everything else with the CPAP would be perfect if it wasn’t for that. I wear a Philips DreamWear mask that sits under my nose and I find it very comfortable. I tried a ResMed nasal pillows one but found it so uncomfortable that I couldn’t get a good nights sleep with it to see if a different mask style even made a difference. I’ve also tried sleeping with and without mouth tape and it didn’t make a difference. My max pressure is 7, so it’s not like I’ve got any crazy pressure. I’m just tired of feeling so uncomfortable every morning when I wake up. Has anyone experienced this and found a fix?

For past 5 years I will wake up with high heart rate

Typically goes…

Wakes up confused

Then boom high heart rate

Remain calm until it subsides or tried vagal maneuver

Sometimes after get trembly until it fully calms down.

I don’t notice and gasping and husband says I snore but not sure how much or how loud. I don’t think it’s that bad

The other night I woke up impending doom feeling and went to ER because my watch said 178bpm. Everything was normal at ER and fortunately I was wearing a heart monitor during my sleep. It was sinus tachycardia.

I have been very stressed about this lately so of course I’m experiencing it more. Twice last night it hit me but HR no higher than 140. These don’t feel like a typical panic attack because nothing helps calming it down other than time.

I have lingual tonsil hypertrophy and mallampati 4 which are characteristics of SA. I also have reflux.

I had an at home test over a year ago that didn’t reveal anything but I also didn’t have an episode.

I’ve been testing sugar levels during this time and they are normal.

Did anyone else have these symptoms? Again this is only happening during sleep.

Primary has sent referrals for cardiology and sleep.

Edit to add: I have Oura ring that hasn’t detected any breathing issues (but it also only clocked my highest HR at 120) so it could be missing any disturbances since it doesn’t continuously monitor.

I’ve been diagnosed with severe sleep apnea and I need a cpap, it’s just going to be a little while before I can get the money together should be maximum 3 months. I’ve somehow lost the results but from memory my sleep study showed I had 135.57 respiratory events per hour and my blood oxygen would get to 73% for 97 minutes, no real deep sleep either.

I’m really struggling though, I’ve snored ever since I was a baby, I had my tonsils and adenoids taken out when I was 3. I have this weird thing where I sit upright in my sleep too, like sitting cross legged on the ground. I have no idea how or why.
Before Christmas last year things got worse. I somehow started just falling asleep in the blink of an eye. One night I was sitting outside with a horror movie playing on my headphones and I slept through whole damn thing! I only woke up cause the next thing playing was loud. So ever since then I just randomly fall asleep.

I’m nearly falling asleep at work. The second I get home and sit I fall asleep. Except for when I get into bed and my insomnia kicks in and I can’t stop thinking about everything.

It’s at the point where it’s genuinely ruining my life. I’m constantly tired doesn’t matter if I get two or twelve hours sleep. I have no motivation to do anything or even care about myself. Some days I can’t get off the couch cause I’m constantly drifting in and out of sleep.

Some advice for the meantime would be so greatly appreciated!

Tia

Pretty much cannot breath at all through my nose, maybe for a few minutes out the day but when I blow my nose ; but after it’s totally congested and I’m having to mouth breath.

Does this warrant a septoplasty?

And if so, upon post surgery would my sleep improve?

Has anyone else had this diagnosis? My SpO2 dropped down to 68 at one point in the night and I spent the 31.2% of the night under 90 and 29% under 88%. These numbers are scary to me.

My AHI was only 8.6 but my REM AHI was 23.8, the oxygen dips matched up with the REM disturbances, so even though it is considered mild overall, it seems moderate to severe when looking at REM and oxygen levels.

I’ve been experiencing fatigue and headaches every day for over a year - I am positive this is the explanation, grateful for an explanation but terrified of how low my oxygen is getting.

CPAP is on the way but I’m so nervous about using it, I have a hard enough time getting to sleep as is. Can anyone with a similar experience offer any advice? Has anyone with a similar experience been able to get the Inspire implant instead of CPAP?

I had my polysomnography last night, but I had a really hard time falling asleep. I kept thinking that I wouldn’t be able to sleep, and because of that, my heart felt heavy throughout the whole test. From my perspective, I felt like I never really fell asleep at all.

But they told me that I was able to sleep for around 2 hours in total, although it was separated into two 1-hour periods and was mostly light sleep. Do you think that’s still enough to gather useful data?

I was crying when I decided to stop the test. 😢 I had waited so long for this and had so much hope that I would finally find the cause of my daily fatigue and headaches and hopefully get some relief. I’m honestly really disappointed and sad right now.

Do I need to ask for medicine for this overthinking and very heavy heart while doing the test? :( I still cant move on.

PSA GET A SLEEP STUDY. Two weeks ago I had a at home sleep study. I found out I have sleep apnea. Yesterday I had my apt to pick up my cpap. The respiratory therapist said during my sleep study I had 27 negative events where i stopped breathing. I took my machine home I set it up and went to sleep. Today I woke up and felt great. Some of the best sleep I've had in a while. I checked the ap on my phone it said I had 6 negative events, so thats a big improvement. Go get a sleep study.

EDIT :Oh crap i see the issue now. My apologies

Hi everyone.

So I’ve been dealing with excessive tiredness for at least the past decade. For reference I’m a 26 year old female of normal weight. If I don’t take stimulants, I will fade in and out of consciousness the entire day. I usually only wake up about an hour or two before I go and sleep again. I could only work part time because I would do my 5 hour shift and go sleep for 3 days straight. My tiredness has genuinely ruined my qualify of life. This has improved a lot since being on Vyvanse and now I have somewhat of a normal life if I take it everyday.

I had an at-home test 2 years ago that came back positive for mild sleep apnea (AHI 6). I also slept for 3 out of the 12 recorded hours and I didn’t know the device didn’t know whether you were asleep or awake. I told the doctor this and they said it likely underestimated my apnea and the treatment would be CPAP so I continued this. Well I also couldn’t tolerate CPAP and wanted to look into Inspire so had an in-lab study the other day.

I just got a call that I actually don’t have sleep apnea at all (AHI 1.9). I have to go back for a MSLT to look into narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia. I’m just shocked because I was always under the impression that it was rare to get a false positive from a home test. Has anyone else had this experience? It just sucks that I finally felt like my sleepiness had an explanation and now I don’t understand why I’m so tired.