After months of feeling tired all the time, snoring, and a variety of other symptoms, I was just diagnosed with mild sleep apnea (12.0 pAHI) at 20 years old. My sleep doctor allowed me to choose between a mouthpiece and an APAP machine, which I know very little about. I went with the APAP because I feel it would be more effective and wouldn’t cause any jaw/teeth issues. Given that I regularly feel very fatigued, can I assume my recovery from training is subpar? Additionally, can I expect to see any boosts in training outcomes as a result of greater sleep quality?
If your fatigue is actually due to the sleep apnea, then treating the sleep apnea effectively would be expected to result in improvement.
However, if your sleep apnea is only mild, I’m not sure that it is the sole explanation for what you’re experiencing. It’s certainly reasonable to try treatment and hope for the best, though – we just can’t really predict what will happen with respect to your training.
Does mild apnea not regularly produce symptoms of fatigue? If I begin the APAP treatment and all my symptoms dissipate, great. If not, what else should I prioritize checking into?
Fatigue in training is not necessarily the same as daytime sleepiness, which is common with sleep apnea. As Dr. Baraki said, it is difficult to predict how this will affect your training, if at all.
As far as “checking into”, presumably meaning fatigue in general, there is a broad range of causes including acute and chronic medical disorders, psychological conditions, medication toxicity, etc. and the meaning of fatigue is relatively non-specific too. For example, some people say fatigue and mean “tired” like they want to sleep and others say fatigue and mean that they have trouble concentrating, initiating activity, etc. Would recommend working through this with your physician.
I can certainly attest to experiencing daytime sleepiness. It seems that I’m one of the people that are quite symptomatic, despite having mild OSA. Hopefully, I can get my APAP machine here soon, and just go from there! I know you’ve talked about having a CPAP before, so I’d like to ask you, how quickly did you get adjusted to it and what would you recommend do to get comfortable quickly? Do you use a full face mask or nasal pillows? Thanks again.
I don’t have any secrets to getting adjusted to the CPAP that I think will work reliably well for lots of people. Personally, I just tried to sleep with it for progressively longer periods of time almost like a competition night-by-night.
I use the nasal pillows, but the specific apparatus should be selected based on your needs.
I’ve gotten the nasal pillows as well, but I seem to be having trouble with my mouth falling open. I’ve been using mouth tape to help keep my mouth shut, but I’m not sure if it’s completely preventing mouth breathing. Maybe I should ask my doctor about a chinstrap?