My Life and Sleep Apnea

Obstructive sleep apnea might be part of the reason I have been plagued with depression.  In fact, I have also had doctors tell me that they think the lack of sleep certainly could be a significant factor in my being depressed, although it isn’t the only factor by far. An article on the Scientific American website seems to support that idea.   According to the  article , “ People with depression or other mental illnesses often report trouble sleeping, daytime drowsiness and other sleep-related issues. Now a growing body of research is showing that treating sleep problems can dramatically improve psychiatric symptoms in many patients.”   A study conducted at the Cleveland Clinic assessed that women have a greater chance of becoming depressed from sleep apnea than men, who have twice the chance of being depressed, while women’s chances are five to one.    In fact, the article goes on to say that trying to deal with sleep iss...

You can’t sleep and you know why you can’t sleep, because you have sleep apnea. In the morning you are grumpy, irritable and no fun to be around. It might even be worse than that because there seems to be a connection between sleep apnea and depression. I have been struggling with sleep apnea for years and I had also been struggling with depression for years. I had never made the connection between the two. My depression is now under control thanks to medication and quite a few counseling sessions. Depression isn’t a clear cut illness that you can point to one reason that you have it. It may be the culmination of many things, a bad childhood, heredity, chemical imbalance and yes, even sleep apnea. I don’t know why I didn’t consider my sleep apnea as a contributor to my depression. I had always thought that it was due to a chemical imbalance or heredity or something else. The thought that my lack of sleep could make me depressed didn’t cross my mind. The light bulb in my head f...