[Symptoms] ian93 story - Looking for opinions

[ian93]

Hello everyone

My name is Ian, and I'm 29yo. I suffer from a "mild" Tourette's syndrome, which gets better or worse depending on my anxiety and how well I sleep. A few months ago, after years of waking up not rested in the morning and feeling tired during the day, I started suspecting that there is something wrong with my sleep. My father was diagnosed with sleep apnea almost 20 years ago, so I'm quite familiar with the symptoms, even though fortunately my symptoms are nowhere close to the ones my father had. He could easily fall asleep everywhere, even when driving, while I only feel tired during the day.

I started tracking my sleep by recording my snores and spo2 using a SLEEPON Go2Sleep FE. After some weeks, I found that I had some oxygen drops almost every night and snore pretty loudly sometimes, but doesn't seem like I stop breathing by listening to the recordings around the time when my oxygen starts to drop.

Since I don't know if it's serious or not, I decided to consult with my doctor and showed him the results I got from the SLEEPON device. The visit was like 3~ min long, and he told me that these devices are not accurate and that if I lost some weight I should be fine.

The way my doctor talked, made me feel like he doesn't give a f*** but losing some weight made sense, so it motivated me to be a bit more active in the past 3 weeks, so I lost 3 kg (6.61lbs), reducing my BMI from 28.9 to 28. I'll try to keep up the good work and lose some more kg and see if it improves my sleep. Also bought a Viatom SleepU which people said it's more accurate.

I'm planning to visit a private doctor using my insurance instead of going again to the doctor I have through public health if my sleep doesn't improve after losing some weight. But last night, slept for 7 hours and woke up quite tired. So I would like to know what people think about the Sleep Reports I get from the SleepU device. Maybe I should visit a doctor right away, or maybe I don't have to worry about it too much...

Thanks

[Lucid]

Hi, ian93  First, good on you for getting moving and losing some weight, both of which are so fundamental to good health.  However, weight loss and exercise are not likely to cure sleep apnea, if that's what you have.  

You are dealing with a chronic condition that is affected by anxiety and poor sleep, you're snoring, and you have a family history of sleep apnea.  You're tired even though it looks like you are getting enough hours of sleep.  

It makes sense to go ahead and get a sleep study.  O2 data are not an adequate indicator, because you need to know whether your sleep is being disrupted or not.

[ian93]

Thanks Lucid, your advice is really helpful to me. I'll try to find a good doctor and make an appointment as soon as possible.

Another thing that I forgot to mention is that a few years ago my dentist diagnosed me with Bruxism (teeth grinding), which seems to be another indicator of sleep apnea...

[Lucid]

It's really worth finding out, ian93.  I wish I'd done a study 10 or 15 years ago and gotten treatment earlier.  Would have made a big difference in my life!

Of course, if you're lucky not to have sleep apnea, the study will set your mind at ease, and you can focus on other aspects of health.  Good luck!