i really want to go in for a sleep study. did you have yours Dr. appointed or go to a local university? a university near me offers sleep studies that the undergrads do. not sure how much it is, but ive been contemplating it for some time.
i already know i have sleep apnea. neck is 18", clinically im considered Obese because of my weight. and ive had numerous episodes like you have had, shoot up out of bed in the middle of the night grasping for air, heart racing. freaked the fuck out of this girl i was seeing first time it happened a night she stayed over. she didnt go back to sleep after lol stayed up and made sure i was still breathing.
my dad has apnea too. i know he has a cpap machine he doesnt use. i keep meaning to ask him to borrow it and try it out. what have you done to improve your sleep
@Eman
I went through an ENT to have the sleep study ordered. Once they get the results, they'll refer you to a pulmonologist.
There's two ways they can do it, an at home test and an in lab study. The at home version is easier and less invasive but it's also notorious for being less accurate. I did everything right and they said my statistics didn't really make sense but it was enough to confirm sleep apnea, my pulse monitor also stopped reading for about two hours I think... No idea why.
The in lab version is more involved, you'll go in like you're staying at a motel for the evening and they'll monitor you through the night. You'll find out right away what your statistics are, how often you have "events", what your oxygen levels go down to, how high your pulse gets, how long you enter REM sleep, etc etc.
Your insurance will determine which study you're able to do. The one at the University would almost certainly be an in lab study. If you don't have insurance, I'd definitely look more into the University. If you have insurance, just go to ENt and you'll find out what's covered. My insurance is good, I haven't paid anything except some co-pays and my insurance has probably paid at least 10k by now.
Once you find out you have apnea, you'll either go back to the lab for another night or they'll give you your CPAP to take home and adjust remotely. The in lab version, again, more precise I think. They'll basically adjust the pressure on your machine until you are breathing 100%. The at home will automatically adjust to what you need then the provider will set you machine to turn on at that pressure. It takes a little longer to get dialed in and you have no control over the pressure settings, have to call doctor everytime you need it reset.
You could try your dad's, but it's possible and actually pretty likely it won't do anything for you. A guy I work with has his pressure set for 8 out of 20, if I tried his it would do absolutely nothing for me. It's very user specific.
I actually never had many sleep apnea symptoms other than having a hard time getting up in the morning, never been a morning person though. My snoring was the most obvious symptom that there was a problem. I didn't realize how bad it really was until I got the study and found out my pulse was getting up to 150BPM and my O2 levels were dropping into the 50's. For reference, anything below 90 is significant... I was at 98 in the doctor's office. I was getting almost zero REM sleep. My pressure is set as high as any CPAP will go and I still usually can't sleep on my back without snoring... I'm a rare case though, muscle mass in my neck and traps are not helping my cause... It's much more difficult to open airways with more muscle. I don't know how people over 300 or 400 pounds do it!
Hope this helps, let me know if I can help more. It's an important thing to get taken care of, it WILL kill you eventually if you don't handle it. It's not a fun time but once it's taken care of it isn't that bad. It's just a little bit of a lifestyle change, you need to be ready to keep having the doctor and homecare provider change things until you're comfortable. Or as comfortable as you can get.
