[Treatment] Low Apnea but suddenly tired

[Zainabpb]

It's been 2 days where my apneas was at its lowest (1.1) but I feel so tired again. I have been having extreme stress at work so I'm not sure if this is the reason. I'm so scared to be tired like I use to be. This 2 days was just a reminder of the agony of the fatigue I experienced prior my treatment . Fell asleep the past 2 nights after supper for the first time after my treatment started in August. I'm unable to post Sleepyhead as my SD card I forgot at my Supplier when I went for a loan test mask. I just concerned and hope it's temporary and stress related.

[Rcgop]

My best numbers do not equate to my best sleep. Apnea’s might wake you but do not happen when you ARE awake. Stress is a real sleep killer.

[Big Guy]

Stress crosses many lines when it comes to our health and how it affects it. Try to do whatever it takes to reduce the stress in your life. 

Speak to family and/or friends about it and see if they might be able to help. If it's beyond that, seek out some professional help. Stress just doesn't diminish or disappear on it's own. You simply have to do something about it. 

I was in LE for 30 years. I dealt with a lot of stress on a daily basis. If you don't learn to manage it effectively, it will only get worse.

[mesenteria]

It seems that your perceptions are typical for people who report that their therapy numbers suggests they are getting excellent treatment.  It's almost like there's an unwritten inverse to how good the numbers look in relation to how tired we feel when up and at 'em.  I haven't a clue why that is, and have yet to see an explanation.

This won't be of any comfort to you, probably, but what you report and feel is not the least bit unusual...except it's awful for you.  Many of us understand completely.

[Zainabpb]

Thanks for the responses. I just woke up. The time is 04:43 am. This realising that prior to my treatment me waking up this early was an impossible task. I use to want to cry when I had to wake up to get to work, this showing me that my therapy is working and it can be normal for me to still feel tired at night, especially if I had a hectic day at work.

Thank you all for guidance. This group are really of value for us newbies that is still in the teething stages of out therapy.

[SarcasticDave94]

FWIW it seems many of us hosers fall into the trap that an AHI of 5 or less will automatically make us feel better sleep-wise. The less than 5 AHI trap being fed to us by these Duck docs that are at times less than energetic in researching how we're really doing overall. While less than 5 is great, if you do not feel rested, overall, you really haven't accomplished a true "great" status.

May I suggest you seek for ways to improve feeling more well rested? This entire post seems to be another way of stating what mesenteria is attempting to convey.

[Fats Drywaller]

It seems that your perceptions are typical for people who report that their therapy numbers suggests they are getting excellent treatment.  It's almost like there's an unwritten inverse to how good the numbers look in relation to how tired we feel when up and at 'em.  I haven't a clue why that is, and have yet to see an explanation.

Ah, but how long might that continue after the patient begins the CPAP therapy?  Weeks, months, years?  Weeks or months would seem to be completely understandable and normal.  And there are obviously zillions of CPAP users who feel at least OK, sometimes even great, once that initial phase of recovery from untreated sleep apnea has faded away.  The difference is that they don't report their lack of symptoms anywhere, so their data points don't get collected.  Those are, IIRC, what Martin Gardner used to call non-events.  Our attention registers the events but not the non-events.

Another thing that makes all of that difficult to analyze is that the patients who are still feeling bad despite consistent CPAP use and low AHIs most likely have other physiological problems that contribute in various ways ... and in a lot of those cases there could be side effects from prescription drugs that come into play also, and possibly even interactions among two or more drugs.  I think that's commonly overlooked because we tend to trust the medical profession, and unfortunately the medical industry, implicitly.

I've come to realize lately that in the medical profession, a good GP (a.k.a. PCP, primary care physician), one who is smart & educated & experienced and who can diagnose a wide variety of problems accurately, is a rare and super-valuable animal.  I've realized that especially since I've just lost an ab-fab one who went on in his career to something bigger & better, leaving his former patients at the mercy of a number of GPs who are not nearly as good and in some cases basically useless.

I think it probably takes a good medical generalist to deal effectively with those cases where there are interacting conditions & diseases & possibly drugs as well. The typical sleepydoc sure ain't gonna do it!

Sorry if that's all stating the obvious, but some beginning CPAP users do seem to expect miracles right away.

[Fats Drywaller]

Some moral support for Zainabpb and all other newbies ... my attempt at "bumper-sticker CPAP advocacy":

Chronic sleep apnea, with its oxygen deprivation and carbon-dioxide poisoning affecting all organs of the body including the brain, occurs gradually.  The treatment for that condition, using CPAP (or ASV when appropriate), also happens gradually: little by little, bit by bit.

It's important for the patient to try to get to 100% compliance as soon as possible, not for any mickey-mouse insurance reason (although that does matter financially) but because that's the only way it's fully effective.  The quicker you start using the machine during every sleeping minute, the quicker your symptoms will fade away.

During the initial acclimation phase it will almost always be necessary to tune the machine's pressure settings, whether or not that is done according to the instructions of a doctor or RT.  Using a machine that hasn't been set appropriately is at least as counterproductive as wearing eyeglasses made from someone else's prescription.

Finally, it's essential to find and use the mask that's right for you, which is subjective and has to be done via trial & error, possibly guided by advice and reviews from other patients.  In most cases, there's no way for a doctor or RT to predict which mask or size will do the job best for a particular patient.

[Sleep2Snore]

A data chart might help see what is going on, but remember you have to sleep to feel refreshed. If you have a lot of stress and worse still if you are worrying about the machine and the AHIs you are having, you are making you stress levels even higher.
5 or less is considered normal for most people, but what is normal? It is the same as blood tests, within normal range is what is normal for most people. What is normal for you might be slightly outside normal be be normal for you.
I think it may be stress that is stopping you resting properly, this might strangely show up as lower readings on the machine as you are not resting, therefore you are not resting enough to relax and have AHIs. This is just a theory, but it may have some merit.

[Zainabpb]

A data chart might help see what is going on, but remember you have to sleep to feel refreshed.  If you have a lot of stress and worse still if you are worrying about the machine and the AHIs you are having, you are making you stress levels even higher.
5 or less is considered normal for most people, but what is normal?  It is the same as blood tests, within normal range is what is normal for most people.  What is normal for you might be slightly outside normal be be normal for you.
I think it may be stress that is stopping you resting properly, this might strangely show up as lower readings on the machine as you are not resting, therefore you are not resting enough to relax and have AHIs.  This is just a theory, but it may have some merit.