[Health] Anxiety and Sleep Apnea - Printable Version +- Apnea Board Forum - CPAP | Sleep Apnea (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums) +-- Forum: Public Area (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Forum-Public-Area) +--- Forum: Main Apnea Board Forum (https://www.apneaboard.com/forums/Forum-Main-Apnea-Board-Forum) +--- Thread: [Health] Anxiety and Sleep Apnea (/Thread-Health-Anxiety-and-Sleep-Apnea) |
Anxiety and Sleep Apnea - Sleepster - 05-17-2021 Here's a pretty good article on the connection between sleep apnea and anxiety. Quote:Anxiety: A Clue to Sleep Apnea RE: Anxiety and Sleep Apnea - SarcasticDave94 - 05-17-2021 Interesting and a great find. RE: Anxiety and Sleep Apnea - Geer1 - 05-17-2021 The physical side effects of stress and anxiety are caused by our autonomic nervous system which has two sides, sympathetic (fight or flight) and parasympathetic (rest and digest). Anything that triggers our sympathetic nervous system can create the exact same physical and mental issues that stress and anxiety can cause. Apnea is one of these causes, it literally triggers your sympathetic nervous system so as to try and keep you from suffocating in your sleep. Watchpat tests used for apnea don't monitor breathing but rather monitor peripheral arterial tone (a measurement related to autonomic nervous system reaction), that really makes it obvious how closely linked anxiety and sleep apnea can be (especially when you further consider that this is happening in your sleep when body is supposed to be relaxing and healing itself). RE: Anxiety and Sleep Apnea - cathyf - 05-18-2021 The way that I explain sleep apnea is that every time you stop breathing your body stages a mini panic attack to kick you awake and start your breathing. Then you promptly fall back asleep, and either stop breathing again and another mini panic attack, or you breathe for awhile reasonably well. As long as you are looping through the sleep->suffocation->panic->arousal->breathe->sleep->suffocation->panic->arousal->breathe->sleep->etc. cycle your body is marinating in cortisol stress hormones. Then when you break the cycle for awhile and get enough oxygen, your body declares the emergency over and your kidneys go and flush the cortisol out. So not only do you wake up with heart pounding and mind racing like you are running from a bear, but you also wake up every hour or two with your back teeth floating, and by morning are seriously dehydrated. I've maintained for years that a big problem with sleep medicine is that doctors go all freaked out by oxygen desaturations, but they think sleep deprivation is a sign of toughness to brag about. Listen to them talk about being interns and going 90-some hours with no sleep! But they imagine that somebody with apnea is going to stop breathing and die from lack of oxygen and are all hepped up to do something about THAT! But in fact none of us with plain old sleep apnea is in any danger of just "forgetting" to breathe -- what's killing us is that our own bodies are perfectly capable of massive reactions to the breathing halts. And over time we just wear out from all of the panic! One thing that I don't get at all is how people tolerate machines with no data. When they told me last fall that I didn't have apnea and should stop using the CPAP, my reaction was OMG how can I go to sleep without the ability to check my data later and find out what happened while I was asleep? RE: Anxiety and Sleep Apnea - Ratchick - 05-19-2021 Explains a lot, considering I'm 99% certain my CSA is linked to the dysautonomia I struggle with (which also routinely gets misdiagnosed by doctors as anxiety too, especially in women). RE: Anxiety and Sleep Apnea - Captain Howdy - 05-19-2021 (05-18-2021, 10:25 PM)cathyf Wrote: The way that I explain sleep apnea is that every time you stop breathing your body stages a mini panic attack to kick you awake and start your breathing. Then you promptly fall back asleep, and either stop breathing again and another mini panic attack, or you breathe for awhile reasonably well. As long as you are looping through the sleep->suffocation->panic->arousal->breathe->sleep->suffocation->panic->arousal->breathe->sleep->etc. cycle your body is marinating in cortisol stress hormones. Then when you break the cycle for awhile and get enough oxygen, your body declares the emergency over and your kidneys go and flush the cortisol out. So not only do you wake up with heart pounding and mind racing like you are running from a bear, but you also wake up every hour or two with your back teeth floating, and by morning are seriously dehydrated. Brilliantly put. Mirrors my life for the past ... god knows how long |