Wondering if anyone is suffering from sleep apnea, how you found out, how it was diagnosed and how it was treated?
Mostly wondering since I’ve been dealing with debilitating fatigue for years now. Even after sleeping for 8-10 hours I will still wake up feeling exhausted. As a mere example: I had a situation of missing my flight since I fell asleep for hours in the midst of the day on a crowded airport. It is affecting my quality of life.
However, when I fill in online ‘tests’ based on my low BMI, low neck circumference, age, low blood pressure, the fact I don’t wake up at night, never had any comments about snoring, I’m deemed at ‘low risk’ of having sleep apnea. I’d ask my GP for a referral, wouldn’t it be that I don’t expect a lot of it - it is difficult to get referrals here.
Thanks
Hi Sash, Have you tried NR or NMN for fatigue? I’ve taken NR (and TMG) for several years now and it helps with energy.
Thanks Kandice, I had taken NR for years each day, and subsequently NMN for about 10 months. I’ve also tried it combined with TMG for a while (until I was worried TMG may increase methionine levels). Admittedly I never noticed any changes in energy levels. But I’m happy to hear it had such effects for you 
Thanks for your input.
Doesn’t have to be sleep apnea, could be narcolepsy, and a sleep study or a trial of provigil would help to diagnose it.
Thanks Mike, I appreciate your input.
I had taken a multivitamin for quite a while, but unfortunately didn’t notice any effects when it comes to this fatigue. I stopped because of ‘issues’ with a lot of multivitamins. (Such as having high doses of vitamin A (there is a lot of vitamin A in my diet already), very high amounts of the B’s vitamins, copper, and/or alpha-tocopherol without tocotrienols, etc). Rather I started to measure my vitamin/mineral blood levels every now and then, and supplement where necessary (such as D3, B12, low dose zinc, mg, albeit the latter two looked great in blood tests also etc). I grow part of my food myself and my vitamin/mineral levels are usually good.
I’ve also taken (Panax) Ginseng supplements as well as Ashwagandha (KSM-66) for years. I have the not-so-good/unusual habit of exercising outdoors at night (given high daytime air pollution over here, and my suboptimal circadian rhythm). So commonly I exercise a few hours before going to bed, albeit I try to not exercise too intensely just before bed. I used to have an infrared sauna at home also. However I gave up on it and the past 8-9 months used an (infra)red panel after waking up to try to regulate my circadian rhythm - without much luck.
Thank you; I appreciate it. . You mentioned Provigil indeed. I have an appointment with my GP next week and will bring it up. I also called a sleep clinic today. As far as I was informed they start with an at home Pulse Oximetry Test - could this also potentially pick up narcolepsy? (I thought not?)
It could indicate sleep apnea if your O2 saturation drops at night.
Thanks Mike; no I’ve been dealing with this fatigue for years. At the time I had been under severe stress for a prolonged period, and systemic issues and a diagnosis with a rather serious disease followed. It’s a long story, but ultimately all symptoms resolved and my CRP-levels have been below 0.1 if I stick to my diet/exercise regimen. But the severe fatigue remained (albeit it seemed to lift initially when I started Rapa. So I’ve wondered if my dosing is off).
As to vitamin A, there is a difference between beta-carotene from foods (which I eat without limitations) and from supplements. As also discussed in studies, and here for example:
Thanks Mike. I’ve taken quite some supplements consistently over the years, so generally I don’t shy away from supplements. Indeed the potential issues of supplementing alpha-tocopherol in isolation has been discussed quite a bit. As mentioned above: the fact that most multi-vitamins here contain only alpha-tocopherol without the tocotrienols, is one of several reasons I stopped taking multi-vitamins.
Of course you’d want to avoid deficiencies, but imho: a chronic/permanent oversupply of bioactive vitamins/minerals may have different and potentially unknown effects versus getting vitamins/minerals from food or low dose supplementation. And imho: in many cases there is no research supporting the health benefits of such chronic over-supplementation. On the other hand I do think there are enough studies that indicate some caution may be warranted. I don’t have the time to cite all research I’d want to cite in detail, but only some links:
Sure, we can agree to disagree about this subject. I appreciate your input either way and will keep it in mind. Good luck to you also .
I discovered I had sleep apnea from a number of clues:
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My physician thought I should have it checked out based on my age and symptoms (but I never did)
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I have on a couple of occasions awakened gasping for breath
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I used to awaken several times during the night thinking I had to pee
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If I lay flat on my back and let my throat relax, I can sense airway obstruction
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I got a sleep wedge that angles my body so my head is at an angle and that fixed it. Just have to be sure not to roll into the wrong position.
Thanks CTStan, good to hear you found a solution. I’ll try to get a test done for a start, but also thought it couldn’t hurt to at least try changing position - I tend to sleep on my back.
How about dental appliances? There is some literature about dental appliances (similar to bite guards) for sleep apnea.
You are definitely right. But more and more studies are coming out about microplastics that have been found in different organs/tissues and blood, and the effects still seem quite uncertain. I used to wear a mouth guard against bruxism, but admittedly I’ve been a bit hesitant to keep wearing a silicone mouth guard day-in-day-out. Perhaps I’m being overly cautious?
Yeh, I tried them but couldnt sleep with them, plus they dried out my mouth. Seemed like a good idea at the time.
I never tried mouth tape. I did try a band once that you put around your head to keep you jaw from falling open. That misses the problem, though.
Tape doesnt sound unreasonable to prevent snoring, except for the fact that if you have sleep apnea you cant count on being able to get enough breath through your nose either.
Family used to complain about my snoring. I also had dry mouth in the morning. Did taping, and slept on my side. No more dry mouth, and no complaints of snoring. I stopped taping, but still sleep on my side.
It seems, the fact of sleeping on my side helped. The taping, perhaps, speeded up the change from mouth breathing to nose breathing.
Hi Sash,
I’m thin and don’t snore. But I have sleep apnea. Using a CPAP has changed my life! Years ago a doctor set up an overnight sleep study for me after my complaints of being tired all the time. (Over a decade of always being tired and constant brain fog/memory issues.) The sleep study confirmed apnea and I started to use a cpap machine. It was uncomfortable, I felt ridiculous and I gave it up. I then went to an expensive dental appliance that pushed the lower jaw forward, thus apparently holding open the airway in order to prevent apnea. It was uncomfortable and I couldn’t detect a benefit with it either, so I gave it up too. More years went by as I tried a gazillion supplements, and even prescriptions. Nothing worked well and I was essentially a walking zombie. My father in law then passed away and I inherited his CPAP machine. At this point I was determined to give it a proper chance to help, telling myself I would use it religiously for 6 months before I’d even consider giving it up again. It took a few months to work out the bugs. Getting comfortable with it, getting a suitable mask, etc. It took a while to dial it in, finally settling on a nasal pillow mask and a chin strap to keep my jaw basically closed. I love it. I can’t imagine life without it. I don’t even like to take a nap if I don’t have it on! I even lugged it around traveling thru Europe, that’s how awesome it has been for me. I’m no longer bagged and my brain works again. My Apple Watch and sleep apps back up with data, how much better I am sleeping.
My suggestion is to get a sleep study. Google that and find the options in your area. Many people (most?) don’t even know they are waking up all night long. They just know waking life sucks! Pro-tip that may point to apnea: dunno how old you are, but if you wake up once or twice or more times in the night to pee - might not be your personal plumbing. I don’t usually need to get up any more, whereas it was 2 or 3 times a night before. I forget the exact details, but apnea stops the production of the hormone or chemical or whatever that helps us last thru the night without the need/urge to urinate.
You’re dead a long time! Hold it off as long as possible and feel better in the meantime by sorting this out if you can. Get aggressive with finding out what’s up! Heck, I might even stretch the truth with my doctor, telling him/her about waking up gasping for air and how my wife and dog complain about my constant snoring if it meant getting some more in-depth testing. And those sleep studies can diagnose more than just simple apnea. You’re dead a long time! Cheers
Thanks for your great post, Ceeps. Very helpful. That is great to hear that the CPAP ultimately worked so well for you when you persisted in using it - must not have been easy initially but glad to read it turned out so well ultimately. It also motivates me to keep searching for an answer when it comes to this fatigue. Thanks!
Sash - Get in touch with Virginia Total Sleep in Richmond. Dr. Michael Pagano owns this practice. He’s a dentist and his entire practice is fixing sleep apnea using a custom dental appliance to adjust your lower jaw, opening up your airway. He’s fabulous. He goes all over the country, too, for the military helping vets and training military docs in how to treat sleep apea this way. He’s a veteran as well. No CPAP needed. The $8,000 device/consultation cost is 100% covered by insurance including Medicare. It cured my husband’s apnea as tested in his latest in-lab sleep study. Life changing. 
Untreated apnea leads to a ton of problems including heart disease.