When you think of sleep apnea, you’ll probably think of loud snoring and a disturbed night’s sleep, but there are other warning signs that are easier to miss.
You could get a subtle change in your mood, your concentration, energy levels and even your physical health can all be affected, and gradually, making it difficult to recognize when something more serious could be affecting your sleep.
Morning Headaches That Keep Coming Back
Your morning could start with a dull and throbbing pain behind your eyes, or across your forehead, and it could happen most mornings, even if you head to bed early.
When these headaches keep coming back, it could be because you’re dealing with disturbed breathing at night, rather than it just being stress or eye strain related.
You might notice chronic fatigue all day, even after sleeping well, with sharper feeling mood swings where small frustrations hit your harder, because your brain isn’t getting steady oxygen whilst you sleep.
If you sleep with a partner, they might notice a change in your snoring, like louder or irregular snores, that could be stopped by loud gasps.
Waking Up With A Dry Mouth Or Sore Throat
Having a morning headache isn’t the only sign you might be dealing with sleep apnea. If you wake up with a dry mouth or a sore throat, it can also mean you have sleep apnea.
When your airway narrows, or it collapses during sleep apnea, you often breathe through your mouth, which dries out your oral tissues. This then leads to irritation of your throat causes like friction and inflammation.
You might just think you’ve slept with your mouth open, but if you regularly wake with a dry mouth, it could be due to sleep apnea.
There are simple dry mouth remedies you can try, like a glass of water on your bedside table, a humidifier and avoiding alcohol before bed, which will give you minor relief, but it won’t fix untreated apnea.
Trouble Concentrating During The Day
If you feel foggy, unfocused or mentally slower than usual, it can be a sign that you’r suffering with sleep apnea. When you get repeated drops in oxygen at night, it strains your brain and leaves you with a stubborn daytime fatigue which doesn’t ease with caffeine.
There’s a chance you might lose your train of thought mid-sentence, you need to re-read the same line as you can’t absorb what you’ve read, or you could be struggling with tasks that used to feel easy. You could also misplace items, forget appointments or blank on people’s names.
This mental slowdown might leave you feeling irritable, impatient or stressed, and this can lead to a decrease in productivity at work or school.
Restless Sleep And Constant Tossing And Turning
You might assume you’re just a restless sleeper, but constant tossing and turning can mean that your sleep apnea is jolting your body out of the deeper sleep stages.
If you shift your sleeping position throughout the night, as your body is trying to reopen a narrowed airway without you realizing it. You’re not just moving for comfort – you’re moving to breathe.
This all wrecks your sleep quality, as you’ll wake up feeling unrefreshed, with muscle fatigue in your neck, shoulders or back from bracing and repositioning.
Look out for your snoring patterns, like loud and irregular snoring that changes with your sleep position, which can be worse on your back or slightly better on your side.