[Diagnosis] Sleep deprivation vs sleep apnea - my therapy thread

[JRNfromAZ]

Hello, I’m hoping that someone can point me in the right direction towards threads or information about those of us who wake up (or stay awake) when the airway closes during the transition into sleep/involuntary breathing.  A keyword to search on or name for this condition would be very helpful. 

For the last 8 months, I’ve had miserable sleep deprivation. Each time I start to relax into sleep (switching to involuntary breathing?), my tongue or soft palate relaxes and closes my nasal airway (sometimes with a bit of a snore sound/vibration. That feeling startles me and brings me awake again. This cycle can repeat every 30 minutes or so for hours into the night and morning. 

I have been trying many things, and am finally set for an in lab sleep study on Friday, but I don’t know how likely it is to help since my problem seems to be more that I can’t get to sleep rather than that I stop breathing. Also my sensation of the episode is that it takes only a second or two for the relaxation and closure to occur.  I thought that perhaps it was related to UARS/RERA, but for UARS my understanding is that one is already asleep (I don’t think I am) and the restriction lasts for at least 10 seconds.

The only sleep I can get seems to be dependent on being in a position to avoid the airway closing, and I haven’t managed that reliably because of back pain. Also, progressively more positions are not working for the airway closing: previously it would only happen on my back, now it also happens a lot on my side, even when wearing a soft cervical collar.

Other things that have not helped include ~10 sleep medications.

For a little over a month in March of this year, I thought my problem was completely solved by using a MAD. I still use a MAD every night, but since mid-April I’ve had some allergies that leave me still able to breath through my nose when awake, but I have had nasal/sinus drainage since then and my airway closes again as I start to relax into sleep. For the allergies, I’ve been trying saline rinses, daily flonase for a while, and then daily astepro.

Thanks for any suggestions and advice on terminology, testing, and forum thread search ideas, I suspect the information I want is already in here somewhere!

[OpalRose]

Other than using a MAD device, are you using a Cpap at all?  Your profile tells us very little.  Updating your profile would be helpful.  

https://www.apneaboard.com/forums/usercp...on=profile

Also, folk here like to see some data from a night sleep, even if only a couple hours use.

Download the free OSCAR software, set up a profile and IF you're using a data capable Cpap, please take a Screenshot and upload here.  There are links in my signature line to guide you.

What you describe sounds a little like Palatal Prolapse, but I'm not well versed in that.

https://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph...l_Prolapse

https://www.apneaboard.com/wiki/index.ph...l_Prolapse

Glad to hear you're getting a sleep study done. That may help answer a lot of your questions. If you able to get a copy of that study, you can post it here for review.

[JRNfromAZ]

Thank you!

I've attached 3 images of a short session with the Aircurve10 VAuto. During this time, I had 3 events where my airway closed as I was starting to drift off, and I marked these points by pulling the mask open to create a large leak.

BTW, I'm floundering a lot with trying different things: I have not yet been prescribed a PAP, since the at-home sleep study claimed I was fine (apparently not sleeping still counts as fine for the home study). Since the in-lab study was months away and I was desperate, I purchased and attempted to use a second-hand CPAP. Then, when that didn't work and UARS seemed more probable, I bought a second-hand AirCurve10 VAuto. I tried nasal pillows first, then larger pillows, plus two types of chin straps, then a Quattro Mirage that leaked, and now have an F30 mask that is fairly comfortable and doesn't leak. My total time on the CPAP without major leaks was 0 hours (6 hours of attempts). My total time on BIPAP is about 2 hours, none of it sleeping. I'm just guessing at possible settings based on forum posts, and am usually too exhausted to think clearly for more than a couple of hours a day. There are just too many possible combinations of adjustments to make to the BIPAP settings, and I don't even know if it's the right treatment, so I value any advice!

I greatly appreciate the palatal prolapse links, I had not read about that as a specific condition before (on a related note, I only learned about floppy epiglottis a few days ago). The palatal prolapse does sound promising.