Still very tired every day even after 8 hours sleep with CPAP

[pholynyk]

Actually... looking over your posted charts - which all show a 90%tile value of 0.00 - your flow limits are very low in general. You do have some stretches of spiky FL, and I suspect these are caused by some sort of positional problem like chin tucking.

Have you tried using a soft cervical collar to help keep your chin up?

[topdba7]

Thank you very much, pholynyk! I will try to use cervical collar.

[AshSF]

Your O2 levels may be lower than optimal.

You can try to: Raise EPAP and IPAP in increments of 0.5 cm and evaluate for a week for each bump.

[topdba7]

Hi Pholynyk, I have used cervical collar last night, the flow limit was only improved a little bit. I suspect my flow limit has been caused by stuffed nose.

@ashSF, I think my O2 level is fine as those low level was during the time when I stopped the CPAP and went to the restroom. My O2 levels are 97-99 when the CPAP was on. I highlighted it with yellow mark.

[hh9797]

It I have been using CPAP for 1 year, much longer than 90 days. Even though the number looks very well, sometime I even get 0 for AHI. However, every morning I wake up feeling very tired. I have to take a few minutes nap without CPAP on, to be functional for the day.

You may want to have your Thyroid checked out then, if you are constantly feeling fatigued or tired even with good sleep there is a decent chance that you may have hypothyroidism I only recently started the CPAP for my Apneas but 2 years ago I had to have my Thyroid removed due to cancer (well I could have "wait and see"d it but the doctors suggestion was because it was already causing significant quality of life issues to just go ahead and do the surgery and so I did) and yeah prior to getting my thyroid hormones to the level they should be at it was extremely hard to want to be awake at all during the day like I could sleep 3,6,,9 ,even 15 hours and still feel like I had zero sleep. So if your apneas are well managed and you are still having fatigue issues one of the most common causes of that is hypothyroidism. Just go talk to your doctor, let them know "hey my apneas are well managed but I still constantly feel fatigued what else could be causing this issue" odds are the doctor will want to take a vial of blood to check your TH3 and TH4 levels the two Thyroid hormones your body produces.

[topdba7]

Hi h9797,

Thank you very much for your advices! I have some old test data from last August. TH3=32 (24 - 40 as the normal range) and TH4=6.87 (4.68 - 11 as the normal range). My Ferritin = 307 ( 22 - 339 as normal range), I read some where says that Ferritin should be less than 100. Anyone knows ways to reduce ferritin levels other than donating blood ( I had done that, but no longer qualified for it)?

Thanks,
Tony

[hh9797]

Well if those numbers are not that old then it could be something else too, that is just the most common issue. If it has been some time since you had that test done then it is entirely possible as well that maybe it was still functioning well enough at the time but on it's way out seeing as they were both kind of on the low end of normal. I mean while my situation is a bit different seeing as I have no Thyroid, but over the last 18 months without any prescription changes at all my T3 went from 5.2 18 months ago to 5.3 12 months ago tanking down to 2.4 6 months ago with zero prescription changes and my TSH (Thyroid stimulating hormone that tells your Thyroid to produce T3 and T4) went from <0.01 18 and 12 months ago to 1.42 6 months ago, which you may think well the average range is .46-4.88 so isn't that good that that raised up, and in my case not that is not good at all because if there is any lingering cancer in the body they don't want it stimulated into becoming active again.

There are a ton of things that can cause fatigue and there is no way of knowing for sure what is causing it without going in and being checked until a solution is found, my main point was that your poor sleep quality may have nothing to do with the CPAP at all and can be caused by another issue. While Thyroid issues are the most common reason for fatigue it is not the only reason. If you have had your apneas well managed and you are still fatigued you really should consult your doctor rather then people who are not medical experts over the internet. While we can go "hey you might want to try this" only a doctor has the resources to be able to check if it is something totally unrelated causing the issues.

Wish you the best of luck, I still keep my opinion of "Go tell your doctor that the symptoms remain despite the apnea being in check" so that they can know to look deeper into it, if you don't tell them they can not read your mind.

[trance]

"Anyone knows ways to reduce ferritin levels other than donating blood?"

Reduce inflammation? Possibly diet-related.

[topdba7]

Hi h9797,

Thank you very much for your advices! My thyroid tests are a little bit old, and they were on the low end. The doctors would not do anything unless the numbers were out of ranges. I have ordered some thyroid support supplements to boost my thyroid function.

@trance, thank you for your suggestion. I have been doing keto diets for the past several years, and I don’t know if it causes inflammation. My ferritin has been up and down all over the place, from 100 to 440 over the years. The doctors are not letting me to do phlebotomy, arguing that my ferritin is within range.

[Moemah123]

Hi h9797,

Thank you very much for your advices! My thyroid tests are a little bit old, and they were on the low end. The doctors would not do anything unless the numbers were out of ranges. I have ordered some thyroid support supplements to boost my thyroid function.

@trance, thank you for your suggestion. I have been doing keto diets for the past several years, and I don’t know if it causes inflammation. My ferritin has been up and down all over the place, from 100 to 440 over the years. The doctors are not letting me to do phlebotomy, arguing that my ferritin is within range.

Hi Topdba,

I was going through thread and have some similar issues. Mind if I ask what oxygen supplement do you use? Is it hooked to your cpap or how do you use it?