More energy after sleep apnea treatment?

[MrsLee]

Hello,

This seems like a dumb question (I know, there are no dumb questions ), but I am curious to know how those of you who have been treated for sleep apnea FEEL after treatment (with CPAP, etc). Do you have more energy? More motivation?

This is why I ask. I've never, ever slept well. Once I started seeing a psychiatrist for depression and anxiety a few years back, I was prescribed trazodone to help me sleep. At first it was great. I fell asleep quickly and stayed sleeping through the night. I guess that still holds true.

But there are several problems. I can barely stay awake throughout the day. For awhile I was falling asleep at my desk at work every single day and taking naps all the time at home. I feel exhausted all the time. I have very little motivation to work, work out (I am obese so I need to do this), clean the house, anything. My psychiatrist prescribed me Ritalin as a supplement to my depression med (Lexapro). It helped somewhat, in that I stopped actually falling asleep at work. But I still FEEL exhausted constantly. I really don't think it is my depression causing this, as it is under control pretty well. I don't like the thought of taking ritalin just to stay awake during the day and am trying to go off of it.

Plus I snore, loudly I guess. My boyfriend tells me I snore very loud and wake up constantly throughout the night, rolling around and gasping. I don't remember any of this, however. In the morning I hit the snooze button for an hour because I cannot drag myself out of bed. I often wake up with a headache.

So all of this leads me to believe I have sleep apnea. (As a side note, i have had several surgeries on my nose - deviated septum, turbinates, yada yada. Still can't breathe well. And another note - my mom and grandparents have bad sleep apnea but refuse treatment.)

I have put off having a sleep study because I feel like it would go away if I just lost weight. I never used to snore when I was thinner. For some reason I have this huge mental opposition to using a CPAP machine that I cannot even explain. It feels like giving up on the idea of weight loss, even though that makes no sense. I am just stubborn, I guess.

But something dawned on me recently, like a lightbulb going on. If I do have sleep apnea and have to get a CPAP machine, and it allows me to sleep better and feel more rested and have more energy during the day....maybe that will help me finally get onto the road to beating my weight problem, thus possibly making the sleep apnea go away. I'm not sure why I never looked at it in this light before. But if I had more energy and felt better during the day it would be worth it.

So this long-winded explanation brings me back to my original question: Does being treated for sleep apnea really make a difference in energy level and how you feel every day?

I welcome any comments/advice! Thank you!

[ShellMeister]

It can be a world of difference. This sounds weird, but the first thing that I noticed when I started on the CPAP was that Ino longer felt the need to nap at red lights. I certainly have a lot more energy.

[analog2000]

More energy? Are you kidding! There is almost no way to describe how much more energy I have after treatment with CPAP! It is amazing, and it is absolutely life changing. After a few months of treatment (and unfortunately it does take months to see results), you will be a whole new person.

It is good you are overcoming some of your objections to CPAP. Your logic is sound, if you were better rested and had more energy, it would absolutely be easier to lose weight. A lot of studies show that people who are tired eat more (your body tries to gain more energy through high sugar foods to compensate for the lack of sleep).

I don't know how much weight you have to lose, but even if you start right now, it will probably take awhile. If you need to lose 50 pounds, and you take it off at the safe rate of 1-2 pounds a week, it will take you 6 months to a year to lose it all. That is a long time to be tired!

Also, something else to consider - even after you lose the weight, you might still have apnea. My husband lost over 100 pounds, and still has sleep apnea (a sleep study confirms). His doctor said that once you lose the weight, you can still have a lot of excess tissue in your throat. He said to think of it like stretch marks, you lose the weight, but the marks are still there because the skin has been damaged. In the same way, the tissues in your airway might be damaged and (especially as you get older), they might not "snap back" once you get thinner. Does that make sense?

Anyway, I really think you will find losing weight (and everything else about your life) a billion times easier once you are well rested.

Good luck!

[fleet123]

cpap is great. if you have apnea you will be amazed how much better and how easy it is to sleep with machine

[stevefromsd]

I wasn't even dreaming anymore until I got the CPAP machine. I have epilepsy that was controlled for 20 years until I found out I had sleep apnea. Once I started using the CPAP, the seizures stopped.