Sleep Apnea

Do you snore at night? Your spouse would be able to tell you. Sleep apnea is when you suddenly start gasping or making strange sounds at night. You may feel more tired than usual throughout the day even tho u had slept the whole night. You may wake up with a headache. Many people who have sleep apnea are also overweight.

A sleep study is all you need to determine this. They just hook up a bunch of wires to you and you sleep all night. No pain at all.

If you don't get Sleep apnea diagnosed and treated, it can lead to heart failure among many other serious long term health problems.

I personally have Sleep Apnea. For years, my husband would tell me I snore and at times, I would stop breathing and suddenly restart again. I have no recollection of doing this. I went to my doc and finally I was diagnosed with severe apnea.

I wear a CPAP mask at night. Basically it pushes air down your trachea so your airway stays open. In Sleep Apnea, for some reason, the center in the part of the brain that controls sleep does not work right. Therefore your airways collapses, and thus you start gasping for air, etc.
My life has totally turned around since I begun the CPAP. Took a few days to get used to but now it's second nature to wear it. I feel refreshed in the morning and don't need more than 8 hrs of sleep a night.

So in a nutshell, get checked out. U may not have it at all. But you are going to cause greater harm to yourself in the long run, if you do indeed have Apnea and don't get properly treated for it.
Good luck!

Hi T.,
I would definately go get tested. My dad has sleep apnea. He spent one night there for the test. There are certain things that you need to make sure you stay away from and if you don't know you have it, how do you know what danger it brings. Also, any chance it's anxiety? ALOT of people don't know they have it.....I was one of them. It would feel like an elephant was sitting on my chest. I would have 1 episode every 2 years for 4 years and after my second baby arrived, it worsened. Just a thought.
Just good to know when your body changes.
Good Luck!
K. :~)

i would be tested its only one night away fromhome i put my dd to bed then went and i was back before she woke up in the morning

It could be a lot of things, but sleep apnea would likely occur more often. However, I would check it out with your physician and see if he or she thinks additional study is warranted. Good luck.

My father-in-law had sleep apnea for years and ignored it. He now suffers from congestive heart failure, in part due to years of sleep apnea. Check it out. I also work for the AHA and know sleep apnea can affect your heart if it goes untreated for very long. Don't wait. Better safe than sorry.

I have been a nurse for 22 yrs and what you described sounds exactly like sleep apnea. Please see your doctor and tell him what happened. You would benefit to be evaluated at a sleep clinic. Good Luck.

Sounds like sleep apnea. My husband just finished his sleep studies and got a CPAP machine yesterday. Just for information, he went to Good Shepard hospital to have his sleep studies done and he really liked it there. He saw Dr. Jordan and one of his partners and really likes them. They have multiple offices. The office staff were ok, I had to call and nag a few times to get them to call insurance promptly because we were trying to get everything done in a month. We did it though. My husband is so happy that he has the machine, and he and I are wondering why we waited so long. He hasn't used the machine long, but he feels more refreshed. And, the whole process was pretty simple.

yeah... dad has it too. I also had experiences like that and was gonna go but haven't for a long time. perhaps anxiety related too. sleep apnea i think it's the C pap mask at night or sometimes surgery, ... though i don't know of anyone that had surgery (?)