Question:
Narcolepsy vs. Sleep Apnea ?
Answer:
I think I may have one of these but am not sure which. I AM
going to a sleep study, but am worried I'll go and they'll end up
finding nothing. It's going to take some work to wrangle a sleep
study I think, since I'll need to deal with my primary practitioner
and insurance company at the same time. I met my psych doctor today
though, but while he thought it was a good idea, he couldn't set me up
with an appointment. He said I would probably need to go to my
general practitioner to get one set up though. Basically, what I'm
wondering is, am I just lazy as hell? Am I just wasting me time
thinking my tiredness is something more than a character flaw? I've
already been diagnosed with depression and social anxiety. I am being
treated for those (with paxil mainly) and it is helping tons. But
alot of the symptoms that I thought were apart of my anxiety and
depression, mainly the constant tiredness, are still there. Doctors
have told me in the past that my tiredness is caused by depression or
the need to excercise more. But I feel that over the past few years
my depression has gone from almost totally incapacitating to almost
nothing (a significant change to me!), and I don't feel I excercise
less than any other out of shape person, yet they don't seem to have
the same problems that I do. So here is what I've taken notice of.
Reasons I think I have sleep apnea
- I snore ALOT. My roommate finally revealed to me that this is a big
thing. She can hear me in the other room at nights, something I never
knew.
- My mom had this. Is it genetic? Our sleep patterns were identical.
Basically hard time getting to sleep, waking up at night alot, and
then needing a nap during the day.
- I can't sleep on my back. Is this normal? If I try to sleep on my
back I'll stop breathing. This is how it's always been and I thought
everyone was like this.
- I wake up with a sore throat just about every morning.
- I wake up alot during the night.
Reasons I think I have narcolepsy
- Mainly it's the overwhelming need to sleep in the middle of the day.
It hits me like a sledgehammer from 2-6pm. I spend alot of my time
at work just sucking down caffeine and trying to stave off that desire
to sleep. It has caused me to want to sleep in and miss work, and
also to leave work early. It especially happens after I eat. It's
not physical tiredness, like from after excercising or from the
natural need to sleep, it's like my brain just says "ok goodnight" and
it's all I can do to keep it up. I don't know much about narcolepsy,
basically just what I've seen on tv which seems to show that someone
with this condition 'passes out' in public. I don't do that. I can
keep myself awake but it takes ALL of my energy. At jobs where I've
had to get up early I have literally fallen asleep WHILE working. I
mean completely dozing and unconscious but I am still typing at the
friggin keyboard and I've had to quit those jobs because of it.
Basically...I'm tired 24/7. I sleep ALOT and it doesn't seem to help.
I sleep when I get home from work, and I sleep all weekend, and no
matter what I am just tired. I've been told it's depression or lack
of excercise, is that possible? Is this normal and I'm just lazy? I
guess I just wanted to vent what I'm feeling.
i'm glad you've decided you need to have a sleep study done, you'er on the
right track. What you've described sounds VERY much like sleep apnea.....i
would be really really really suprised if your sleep study showed no apnea
after waht you've told us. And while there's not necessarily a specific
genetic link that causes sleep apnea, it is common amongst family members,
possibly because of inherited physical characteristics more than anything
else.
You may have narcolepsy, it's not uncommon for people to have more than one
sleep disorder, but what you describe can happen because of sleep apnea as
well. Because your sleep is being disturbed constantly throughout the
night, you do get tired/sleepy a lot more easily throughout the day.
MANY people get misdiagnosed as having depression when the root of their
problem is acutally poor quality sleep. Poor quality sleep can CAUSE
depression, but it's secondary depression, meaning it's a result of other
circumstances.
I'm not sure if you'll be able to get to a sleep study straight from your
GP. you may need to have your GP refer you to a sleep specialist first, that
that situation varies depending on location etc.
Sounds like I could have wrote this. I have only had the night test so far
but next month I am going for a day and a night test. They would have to do
the day test for the narcolepsy. Not much you can do until you get yourself
evaluated. You are definetly not alone and it is very fustrating. I have
been pushing my doctor into looking into other things that cause tiredness
and I can't get him to budge. Annoying when one is paying for this insurance
and can't get help.
