Sleep Apnea

Sleep Apnea Symptoms : Excessive Daytime Sleepiness And/Or Fatigue

Posted on 05. Dec, 2009 by admin in Do You Have Sleep Apnea ?

The most common sleep complaint of people with sleep apnea is that they get “too much sleep.” Sleep specialists call this symptom excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS).

Two-thirds of sleep apnea patients suffer from some degree of EDS, and they may not even know it. People often have simply lived with the effects of sleep apnea for so long, or it has crept up on them so gradually, that they do not know what “normal” feels like. They may think that they feel normal, that drowsiness is just a sign of getting older, or that maybe they just need a vacation.

However, it is not normal to have to fight to stay awake at your desk at work, at the wheel while driving, at the dinner table, at parties, at sporting events. If you are struggling against sleepiness during the day, you need to find out what is causing your abnormal drowsiness. Find out now before it further undermines your life.

Excessive daytime sleepiness results mainly from poor nighttime sleep; in sleep apnea, the person’s sleep is interrupted throughout the night by repeated apnea events. He does not get enough sleep, and his sleep is of poor quality. As a result of these sleep/breathing disturbances, someone with sleep apnea builds up a “sleep debt” — an ongoing need for sleep that carries over into his daytime life. His sleep debt pressures him to fall asleep easily and frequently during the daytime—at his desk at work, while reading or watching TV, while driving.

Fatigue is another common problem for people with sleep apnea. Fatigue is different from sleepiness. Rather than a desire to go to sleep, fatigue is a sense of feeling exhausted, drained. People with sleep apnea typically feel fatigued a lot of the time. Often, because their apnea has been present for years and has gotten progressively worse, they are not even aware that they are more tired than normal. Or they assume that their fatigue is simply a normal sign of aging.

Again, as with drowsiness, a constant feeling of exhaustion is not normal. It is not an inevitable sign of age. A person who feels fatigued a lot of the time probably has a medical problem. It may or may not be sleep apnea. But a physician should certainly consider sleep apnea as a possible cause of unexplained fatigue and refer a chronically fatigued patient to a sleep clinic for testing if he has suspicious symptoms.

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Tags: Daytime Sleepiness, Fatigue, Sleep Apnea Symptoms