Sleep Apnea and Me

About a month ago, I was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea and started using a CPAP machine this week. My partner had been telling me for a while that I snored really loudly and sounded like I was choking or gasping for air. I wasn’t even aware of snoring at night, much less choking or gasping. I had an overnight sleep study done, a few hours with my “natural” sleep and a few hours with a CPAP machine. I had it done at a sleep center in the Lakeview neighborhood of Chicago, and it was disconcerting and somewhat eerie to be woken up at 5:30 a.m. in an unfamiliar place and leave the center into the quiet dawn. But the room was comfortable and quiet, and I was groggy with sleep when the nurse put on the CPAP, and I slept fine with it.

I got the results back for my sleep study, and there was a lot of technical language and numbers; I only googled some of the acronyms. I didn’t get to discuss the results with a sleep specialist, and I wish I could’ve; the study had a lot of information and was somewhat overwhelming. Turns out I have moderate sleep apnea, having about 19 apneas and hypopneas per hour.

This diagnosis shook me up, because I wasn’t aware I had it. Since I have a major mental health issue, good sleep is crucial to my mental health. I was feeling really tired during the day, but I also thought that could be because I’m a busy working mom, busy academic/professor, just grumpy all the time :), love to take naps/nap all I can.

I started the CPAP machine about a week ago. At first it was cumbersome and unfamiliar; I do have a whole mask on my face connected to the tube connected to the machine. My connected app tells me that I’m having about 3-5 episodes (apneas/hypopneas) per hour now instead of 19, so that’s good. I do feel less tired during the day, like I don’t need to sleep more right after I get up or take naps the whole day, if I can. I think I’m less irritable with my family too. I’m going to try to be patient and see. I’ll keep y’all updated. Anyone else out there deal with sleep apnea? What are your experiences?