Overlapping Condition of the Week: Sleep Apnea
Those of us with fibromyalgia (FMS) are prone to several sleep disorders, and one of them - sleep apnea - can greatly increase our risk of serious health problems, including high blood pressure, stroke, heart attack and sudden death.
People with sleep apnea stop breathing for several seconds at a time while sleeping, and it's not uncommon for us to do that hundreds of times a night. To get you breathing again, your body takes you out of deep sleep and sometimes wakes you up completely. In my sleep study, I slept for fewer than 5 hours, but I had 53 episodes of apnea. That means my sleep was disrupted, on average, about every 6 minutes.
Of course, we know that the less we sleep, the worse we feel. I don't know for sure how long I've had sleep apnea, but I know for certain that it got bad early this summer. My daytime fatigue was extreme (I was afraid I'd developed chronic fatigue syndrome), my energy level plummetted, my pain level increased, and the fog was thick. I eventually noticed that I was waking up with a little gasp and I'd feel a release in my throat. Some people are totally unaware that this is going on, so everyone with fibromyalgia should become familiar with the symptoms. They include:
- Increased daytime sleepiness (beyond what's "normal" with FMS)
- Loud snoring
- Frequent waking
- Dry mouth upon waking
- High blood pressure
Fortunately, sleep apnea is very treatable. Unfortunately, the standard treatment involves strapping a mask to your face all night. (My kids, huge Star Wars fans, call me Darth Mom.) I've been able to adapt to the machine (called CPAP for continuous positive airway pressure) pretty well, and I think the white noise helps me get to sleep, along with the increased focus on breathing. For some people, though, CPAP is really hard to deal with.
Learn more about sleep apnea, what causes it, its relationship to fibromyalgia, dealing with CPAP and much more:
- Fibromyalgia & Sleep Apnea
(People with chronic fatigue syndrome don't appear to be at increased risk for sleep apnea, or any other diagnosable sleep disorder for that matter. Instead, they get vague diagnoses like "unrefreshing sleep" or "poor sleep efficiency.")
Do you have or suspect you have sleep apnea? Tell us about it here, or in About.com's Fibromyalgia & Chronic Fatigue Syndrome community forum (under Newsletter & Blog Topics).
Other Overlapping Conditions:
- Gulf War Syndrome
- Fibromyalgia & Lupus
- Fibromyalgia, ME/CFS & TMJ
- Fibromyalgia & Rheumatoid Arthritis
Photo © A.D.A.M.
