Mild sleep appnoea / Hypopnoea

According to a recent sleep study, this is what I have been diagnosed with and it would definitely explain my absolute need for 8+ hours of sleep a night and then still having frequent daytime tiredness - none of which is particularly helpful when you have a 7 months old bub!

Whilst I feel that this could be a direct result of the pregnancy weight that I have gained (I have lost 13kgs, but still need to lose another 8kgs before I am at the top of my healthy weight range), it wouldn't explain why I have always needed at least 8 hours of sleep and, if given the chance, could easily sleep up to 12 hours per day! Either way I need to lose the rest of the weight and intend to and hope that this resolves the problem.

So I am in the process of trying to get an appointment with a sleep specialist so that they can appropriately analyse my sleep study findings and suggest ways in which to improve the condition.

In the meanwhile, however, I am after some tip from ladies who have the same problem. What did the specialists tell you to do? Have you found any strategies helpful?

Please note that this is only mild and not CPAP-worthy!

Thanks so much :)

Hey babes.

My sleep study found that i had mild sleep apnoea and does not warrant a CPAP machine (thank God).
My Ent did find that i have a deviated septum, which he will operate on.
I need to lose weight, but i strongly believe that i've had this condition even when i was a size 6, so i won't shift weight as i am happy where i am atm, which is a size 14. Losing weight, gets me depressed, so i am not budging my weight.

I will have another sleep study and MSLT in July'ish and the sleep specialist was 99% sure i had narcolepsy = excessive daytime sleepiness.

Is your daytime tiredness = sleepiness or just tired? Because i can sleep during the day even if i am not tired.

Thanks TD. I may bear that in mind seeing I had Rhinoplasty about 10 years ago. Perhaps it could be a nasal issue?

I have never been overweight in my life, except for now and I have always needed lots of sleep - so, like you, I really doubt it has just started now. I think I am just noticing it so much more because my usual massive blocks of sleep have been interrupted since our boy came along haha!

I don't see my daytime tiredness as anything more than what any tired person would feel if they had had very little sleep. I can stay awake if I need to, but if I am rocking my boy to sleep, for example or if I lie down in front of the telly then I start getting sleepy very quickly. Again, nothing out of the ordinary - accept that I shouldn't feel like that after so much sleep!

I am really hoping that I can find some solution to this because if I can just have an extra hour or so to spend by myself and/or with my husband then it won't just be a case of looking after my baby all day, making dinner, eating it and then going straight to bed. I feel as though I have no time to myself because as soon as I have free time, I just want to use it to sleep!

Fortunately, my boy is great sleeper, so I have much to be thankful for :)

Thanks again, hun x

who referred you to get the sleep study done?

If it was an ENT, he/she would have checked inside your nose and down your throat.
Do you snore?

My psychiatrist did - and he will be referring me to the sleep specialist. So I haven't had any physiological checks yet. When I see him next week he said we should start things off by checking my iron levels and do some other blood work. So all in the very early stages.

Re snoring, they did check for that and said that I am not a snorer and only had one moderate bout of snoring during the entire night (my husband begs to differ on that finding, though haha). That is why they catergorised it as hypopnoea as opposed to classic obstructive apnoea. Basically my breathing just becomes so shallow that my blood oxygen levels drop and I in turn wake up enough to regulate the oxygen flow again (as opposed to my airways closing and me snorting myself awake in order to breath again).

sleep issues can cause depression. It has in my case with my narcolepsy. I also see a psychiatrist.
I don't need to know why you are seeing a psychiatrist, but i'm just saying that sleep is a major contributer to my depression.
GL with it all. I've spent a lot of time and money to get some answers about my sleep. I hope you don't need to spend as much money as i did!