Migraine

Hey guys,
I just had a very interesting conversation with my mom in law. Her sister gets migraines and years ago it was found she has sleep apnea. Has a CPAP every night and her migraines super drastically reduced. She was asking my mum in law if I snored. She said she didnt know, so asked my hubby. Who said "ummmm yeah!" I snore so much during the night , hubby constantly has to tell me to knock it off. Whats the connection? you snore cause its an automatic response to not breathing? What do you do to dx it? Anyone in here have it so they can tell me all about it?

love
bim

I don't know much about sleep apnea, but I know that it's generally diagnosed by undergoing a sleep study.

My DH is a poster child for successful treatment of sleep apnea.

My DH was referred for a sleep study by our primary care doc. DH was falling asleep at the drop of a hat. Any time he sat still for more than a few minutes, he dozed off. His depression was out of control, his arthritis had worsened, and in general, his health was on a downward spiral.

He was a huge snorer. As it was explained to us, in sleep apnea the tissues in your throat relax, cutting off your breathing. Your brain gets deprived of oxygen and wakes you up and tells you to breathe again. There's usually a snort or loud snore as you gasp for air. You fall back asleep, but then you wake up again the next time your throat closes off. This happens all night.

You don't realize you've been awake, but you don't sleep for long, all night.

In the sleep study, they hooked all kinds of leads to DH's chest and other places. I didn't ask, but a lot of the stuff had to do with oxygen content of his blood and what stage of sleep he was in. They let him sleep for 2 hours and determined that he was having 70 sleep interruptions an hour. Yes, he was waking up more than once a minute. He never got deeper than very light sleep. No REM sleep at all.

They woke him up after the two hours and fitted him with a CPAP. Continuous Positive Air Pressure. It keeps the tissues in your throat open. It's a small mask that fits over his nose and mouth, connected by a hose to a small air compressor, the size of a shoe box. It only took a couple of nights for him to get used to it. It's very quiet and doesn't bother me at all.

He came home the next morning feeling better than he had in a couple of years. Literally. He got his CPAP a few days later and takes it everywhere, even on fishing trips. He does a new sleep study every year or so to be sure the pressure is right for him. He doesn't snore anymore.

It took 4 months for him to get into the sleep center for his sleep study. I understand that sleep centers all over the country are backed up and have big delays getting in. More centers are opening up, but there's still a backlog.

Sleep apnea is more common if you're overweight. My SIL and BIL both have CPAPs. I'm sure my dad needs one, but at 77, he's not in favor of all these new-fangled machines.

The masks wear out, and he needs a new one about every 3 months. He can tell when they're wearing out because he doesn't feel rested in the morning.

Ask your doc about whether a sleep study might help. It turned my DH's life around.

Gretchen

Bim,

There does seem to be some connection between sleep apnea and Migraine/headache issues. A sleep study wouldn't be a bad idea. Besides that it doesn't hurt!