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Diagnosed with Sleep Apnea but doesn't fit the bill

I've had quite a few health issues up to this point, and no one can seem to find anything wrong. My journey eventually took me to a pulmonologist who said that I may have sleep apnea. I told him that I almost never get restful sleep and that I shoot up and move around during the night, or talk in my sleep and say crazy stuff. So he put me through two sleep studies to find any abnormalities, and the only thing he could find was that for one of the sleep studies, I had a very slight case of sleep apnea--something that he said could be contributed to my excess weight.

So the doctor decided to try me on a CPAP machine just to see how I would react to it. He started me off at 4, and then throughout the night, increased the pressure all the way up to 12. Apparently I slept well at 4, but as soon as the CPAP started getting into the higher pressures, I was showing signs of complex sleep apnea, which is a mixture of obstructive and central sleep apnea. Ironically enough, because the CPAP gave me such bad results, my doctor decided to recommend a CPAP machine to use.

Now here's where I don't think I have sleep apnea. When I wake up in the morning, my blood pressure is lower than normal. During the day, my blood pressure jumps up around 150/90-160/100, but when I wake up in the morning, its about 135/75. Shouldn't my blood pressure be higher in the morning if I had sleep apnea because I stopped breathing at night? Also, the more sleep I get, the better I feel. I require around 10-12 hours of sleep per night to feel decent and if I don't get that, my blood pressure spikes slightly and I get headaches...basically my body runs hot.
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Avatar universal
MEDICAL PROFESSIONAL
You may have what's called upper airway resistance syndrome, which is a variation of obstructive sleep apnea where your oxygen levels don't drop, but you keep waking up due to microscopic obstructions and arousals. If you can't sleep on your back, you most likely have it. The problem is that you can't ever stay in deep sleep. UARS is also associated with low blood pressure. If you continue to gain weight, you'll develop into formal obstructive sleep apnea and then have high blood pressure. I have an article on UARS on this forum.
Helpful - 1
Avatar universal
I do have issues sleeping on my back, which is one of the biggest reasons why I can't use a CPAP. What I end up doing is turning over and lying on my stomach for the majority of my sleep. I don't know if I've ever had low blood pressure but I do have high blood pressure now amongst other issues. My symptoms are fatigue and weakness; high blood pressure that does not respond well to much except Atenolol; low body temperature (used to 98.6 on average and now its 96.5 to 97 on average); a strong heartbeat that sometimes can keep me up at night; some headaches every now and then when I used to have no headaches.

Can a lack of sleep from UARS over a few years have these kinds of effects on my body? I know sleep is a very important function of your body, but I didn't know if it could give me all these sorts of problems. I probably haven't had a good night's sleep in about 6-7 years.
Helpful - 0
4915340 tn?1360965940
A related discussion, Could UARS be the issue? was started.
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
A related discussion, help for sleep apnea was started.
Helpful - 0

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