Do you always feel tired during the day?
does your bed partner say you snore loudly?
are you over weight?
does your bed partner say you suddenly start/stop/gasp with your breathing when asleep?
Then you SHOULD go and get a sleep study. there are different types, and different levels of diagnosis they can provide
sleep apnea can be a missed diagnosis for many people and can lead to a lot of stress on the body, and to a lot of things that negatively affect you
If you have true apnea, and get a bipap or cpap machine, it can make you feel like you're a totally new person when you get a GOOD sleep and wake up rested.
I work with a lot of sleep apnea patients. if you're concerned you have it, spend the money and find out.
I have sleep apnea... and I actually think most people do. If they test you for it, they're going to find it.
Your experience may differ, but if you actually get a sleep study, it's likely to be more than $300.
My doctor said "I can tell from your symptoms and an exam that you have sleep apnea, but in order for insurance to pay for it, you'll need a sleep study."
That sounded reasonable... But when all the various charges came in: sleep study, reading the study, labs, the "hospital room".... it came out to $10,000. My insurance paid 80%, so my part was $2000.
Had he just offered to write me a script for an APAP, it would have been $500-800 out of pocket.
Lesson: Ask if you can get qualify for an automatically adjusting CPAP without going through the sleep study.
I do actually think CPAP is extremely helpful and I do sleep MUCH better with it. But I do think the risks are somewhat exaggerated.
And spork, that is utterly dangerous advice. What sort of medical background do you have to be able to make that sort of judgement? I WORK with the patients who have it. Having patients desaturate to 70% (normal is 90-100) and sometimes even lower to 50 or 60% is not healthy, and is NOT an exaggeration. those with moderate to severe apnea can actually have cardiovascular events due to low oxygen in the blood, heart disease and even death in the worse possible scenarios.
sleep apnea means while asleep you are not breathing. if you are already having bad apnea, and get given a med that further reduces your level of consciousness, you may not wake up the next morning.
Severe sleep apneas cause you to basically suffocate your body for short periods of time, because you are unable to move any air. you sputter, wake up slightly, gasp, take a few breaths then fall back deep asleep and do it all over again and again and again. some patients have dozens of episodes or even hundreds of episodes an hour. It is not an exaggeration nor something to triffle with if you actually do get diagnosed with it.