How would one KNOW if they have sleep apnea?

I'm sitting here reading all of these posts, and I'm really kind of clueless. My daughter had sleep apnea, or so it seemed, until her tonsils were removed. Once she recovered from surgery... she's been sleeping just fine.

I am tired ALL day, and it's not just a sleepy tired, it's a mental and physical exhaustion. I'll go to bed around 10, get up around 7:30 (have a 10 month old) and it's a huge chore to get out of bed. I feel fine for about an hour...and then the exhaustion hits again.

I would never have thought of sleep apnea till I read some of these things --- but now I'm recalling how many times my husband has complained because I'm *all over* the bed. In fact, my 8 year old took a nap with me the other day, but said that he didn't get much rest because I kept shoving him off the bed. I have NO recollection of this at all. He said I just moved and tossed and turned all over the place.

Dh often sleeps on the couch. I just assumed it was because he falls asleep working. He says it's because I'm terrible to sleep with, I move around too much.

Hmmmmmmmmmmmmm. Does this SOUND like apnea??

Sounds more like restless leg syndrome. If it were apnea, he would complain about your snoring/breathing.

jayhawkmom - I was going to ask a similar question as my symptoms sound very like yours. Complete exhaustion! However, I do have lots of little awakenings in the night. I'm wondering if it could be RLS for me. I hope you get to the bottom of it

You could always get one of those sound activated voice recorders and set it by the bed at night. Or even a recorder that records all night or a large majority of the night.

And it's something that you will most likely hear. My wife has it at times, it'll start as a snore, the it sounds like the air flow is being more and more restricted and then she stops breathing completely and then she'll gasp for air after a bit of not breathing.

Apnea is diagnosed by doing a sleep study, where you sleep connected to an ekg, eeg, and other machines, and is generally treated with a c-pap machine, which is positive air pressure.

See your doctor about it.

I had apnea as a child, but it went away when I had my overgrown adenoids taken out.

There are a number of other things that can cause fatigue - hypothyroidism, hypoadrenia, anemia. Your sleeping patternd doesn't sound like apnea.
Debbie

Don't know what happened there, but I was trying to post this link to a discussion on apnea--

http://www.glutenfreeforum.com/index.php?showtopic=13037

Anemia causes sleep disturbances? I know I'm anemic....

Dh says I do snore, not all the time though.