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Sleep Apnoea

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HowVeryDareYou2 Sat 16-Aug-25 09:27:57

My husband has got sleep apnoea.
The clinic will give you a monitor to wear on your wrist overnight. No, you won't sleep there! Then, the next morning, you'll hand it in to the clinic, and they'll look at and assess the recordings on the machine. It will show how many had pauses in your sleep during the night. Google APNEA-HYPOPNEA INDEX (AHI). My husband's was 60 a minute!, which is classed as extremely severe. He's got a CPAP machine (plugs into a socket), which blows air into a mask that goes over his mouth and nose. It works marvellously well. He doesn't snore when he uses it, and the machine is quiet. The readings are stored and can be looked it, if necessary, by a specialist.

Just a thought - you don't drive, do you? If so, you really shouldn't, and it would be dangerous to, until you get it sorted out.

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Humbertbear Sat 16-Aug-25 09:27:44

From what I remember they give you a machine to monitor your sleep at home. DH uses a CPAP machine. Be aware that we were told that if you are prescribed one and can’t use it, you are not allowed to drive. DHs BMI is way over 30.

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Franbern Sat 16-Aug-25 08:39:58

Hurrah, after eighteen months of asking and three separate referrals, I have, at last, actually got a referral to a Sleep Apnoea clinic.

Each time I have answered the questionnaire about my sleep (and falling asleep at all times during the day),, I have scored extremely high. Definitely suffering from this condition, but each time I got referred, local Health Authority refused me 'on account of my BMI being over 30'.
Nowhere on NICE is this mentioned (except to say that people with a BMI over 30 are more likely to have this condition.
I did lose a good amount of weight after the first refusal, but for me to be under 30 BMI is to be far to too thin. I am around 31 or 32 on this very silly, outdated method of deciding if someone is obese, etc.

Lovely Practice Nurse at my GP surgery refused to accept last refusal and fought it, with help from my current GP there, and I have now been accepted and should be able to attend a clinic in the next month or so.

Anybody tell me exactly what I can expect at that clinic, am I expected to sleep there or what? Just be so glad when I can actually get a properly medically advised CPAP machine. Hopefully, then I can get a proper nights sleep and not keep falling asleep during the day.

My normal life is so impacted by this need for sleep during the day. I have fallen asleep in the middle of meetings, sitting round a table at a committee meeting, etc. I have to time-table into each day the need for a good hours sleep early afternoon and directly after my tea in early evening. No matter how hard I fight it, I will just fall asleep at these times, anywhere, in the middle of doing puzzles - pen in hand, etc.
My breathing problems are causing me to have panic attacks during night, and even in the shower as the water comes over my head.
When will this so outdated BMI be done away with. Surely, there must be much more accurate, more modern ways of determining how far people are overweight, etc.

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