Constantly tired

I'm pretty sure I snored my entire life. I've been told by my friends and girlfriend that I snore. I heard recordings of my own snoring from my sleep alarm app I used at the time. Little did I know that it was a symptom of a greater issue.

The preface

I was always tired. I felt sluggish most days because I would barely have undisturbed sleep. I would wake up in the middle of the night gasping for air if I was lying on my back. After working long hours and physically tired, I would feel awful the next day, and repeat that until the weekend. On the weekend, I would be too tired to do anything. I initially thought it was because I had a deviated septum, which I had surgery for, but it didn't solve the problem.

The diagnosis

My family doctor recommended me to a sleep clinic. It took months before they finally reached out to me. When they finally did, I was overjoyed and the tone was definitely noticed by the receptionist I was talking to. Usually, it would take another a month or so before I could actually get an appointment for a sleep study, but miraculously, she was able to give me an appointment the very same night.

The sleep study felt so uncomfortable. There were so many wires put all over my body, the environment was something I wasn't used to sleeping in, and the entire time I was thinking that I need to fall asleep so they can diagnosis me properly.

Fast forward to the day I got my diagnosis, the doctor diagnosed me with moderate sleep apnea. She believes it's the structure of my face, as well as my tongue relaxing and blocking my airway that causes me to gasp for air to wake up. She gave me three options for treatment.

CPAP Machine
Surgery that removes tissue in my throat to widen my airway, which may or may alleviate sympton and those tissues will grow back
Reconstructive jaw surgery permanently fixes the problem, but was over $10000

I went with the CPAP machine because I couldn't afford the jaw surgery, and didn't like the odds of the second option.

Life after diagnosis

My CPAP didn't help much initially. My face was getting used to having mask on it. I had faith it would work but I would still wake up in the middle of the night with it. Going back to my deviated septum, I switched to a different mask where they were nasal pillows that flows airs directly into my nose and this was the game changer.

Pre-CPAP, I would always feel tired and some brain fog. I wouldn't feel as sharp and I sometimes just can take longer to comprehend something due to lack of energy. I would feel like I would get sick more often because of the lack of sleep compounding over time. After doing CPAP for a while and getting a full night's rest, I would actually feel okay. It wasn't like an amazing flow of energy, but it was more like I didn't wake up thinking how tired I felt. I just didn't think about it, and I think that's the biggest change.

These days the only thing that affects my energy levels are when I don't get enough sleep in the first place, or external factors such as noise around the house waking me up prematurely. Being able to sleep a full night without being woken up by not breathing properly has made me feel better overall.

Regret

Everyone knows that sleep is important, but I wish I knew HOW important it really was when I was younger. Lack of sleep harms your energy, your mental health, your gains at the gym/physical recovery, and pretty much overall well-being. There was a time where I felt it was a badge of honour being able to sleep only 4 hours for quite a few months. How I cringe at the thought about it now.

Imagine how I feel when I was be sleep deprived while working physically intensive jobs, not having enough sleep to physically recover or enough energy, then pushing myself to finish another long day at work. I'm talking 12 hours minimum. Then repeat that for months. It's no wonder that I felt depressed and burnt out. Part of me is thankful that I have it diagnosed and treated now, but I really wish I had this diagnosed a decade sooner.

If you're reading this and made it this far, I hope that you or someone you know might