Can central sleep apnea cause daytime breathlessness?
My cardiologist recommended an at-home sleep study device that the clinic will mail to me, I will wear it for a night as it records whatever it records (mostly oxygen and heart rate I think), and send it back.
We are doing other tests for heart health but they are scheduled later.
While I wait I wanted to know if my symptoms match other people's experience of central/nonobstructive sleep apnea. Severe fatigue that has gotten progressively worse over the past 15 or so years, though some days are better than others. I slept in today (9 hrs) hoping that I would feel more energetic today but instead I feel more tired and unusually short of breath even doing simple things like laundry and dishes. I try not to overdo it because of the fatigue but I do light to moderate exercise regularly. I feel like my chest is tired, like the tiredness is in my chest. It's hard to explain. Sometimes a lot of rest helps, sometimes it doesn't. I took a nap the other day which is very unusual for me, but it actually made me feel a little bit better. I did not get enough sleep the night before.
I feel short of breath, dizzy, nauseous and extremely fatigued when I exercise too hard (hence the heart test coming up next month). But the unusual breathlessness doing every day things really makes me anxious and happens every once in a while. Can that be related to sleep apnea or having more apneic episodes in one night?
I wake up many times a night and have for years, with more awakenings as the morning gets closer, but I don't feel breathless when I wake up, I usually just turn over. For the most part my sleep is consistent. I get around 8-9 hours of sleep a night, go to bed around the same time (1-2am) and wake up around the same time (10am).
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Thanks for the update. It's a fine line between finally getting a diagnosis and actually getting the diagnosis. 😀
It's good to have a plan from it, but it means a shift in routine and sometimes in comfort. However, we gotta do what we gotta do!
Glad that you have resolved many issues!
It's inspiring to see...