Sleep Apnea Symptoms In Women

Sleep apnea symptoms in women can be hard to detect. What women often think is just being tired, getting older, or even any underlying illness can actually be sleep apnea. For this reason, it can be hard to ensure you get tested for this condition. Without testing a woman may never know they have sleep apnea and the cycle will continue.

Women are less likely to be diagnosed with sleep apnea. This can pose a problem when trying to find the correct diagnosis. Because the condition is much rarer in women, a doctor is much less likely to consider it as a cause in the initial testing stages. This lack of consideration can lead to treatments that mask the symptoms for small periods of time making you think you are relapsing or the treatment is ineffective.

The most common symptoms in women for sleep apnea vary from those in men. The body type can also vary. In men snoring, being overweight, and being age are often the most common conditions. These are often observable at an initial appointment.

The most common symptom for women is general insomnia. Inability to sleep can be caused by many thing, but apnea is a common culprit. This can present as either difficult to fall asleep or problems with staying asleep. Both of these options can be very troubling and disturbing to normal sleeping habits.

Depression can also be caused by apnea during sleep. This is one of the symptoms that can be masked by other treatments. Depression is very serious and can often be treated aggressively. This aggressive treatment makes it hard to tell that anything else is the matter with the woman in question.

A lack of energy is also a common symptom. This is characterized by energy levels below what a woman normally has. This doesn’t need to be an extreme dip in energy level. In fact, the reason this symptom is often ignored is it can be a gradual decline.

Generalized sleepiness is also a symptom. Feelings such as inability to wake up, having trouble getting started, or wanting to marry the bed so it never has to be left, are all ways that sleepiness can present itself. Sleepiness can also appear during the middle of the day as well. Many people with sleepiness issues find themselves yawning repeatedly throughout the day or wishing for a nap at work.

All of these symptoms can be caused by other things. Even in this combination they are not a complete indicator for apnea. For this reason a sleep study may be necessary to rule out the condition. Any patient with these symptoms is encouraged to ask their doctor to schedule a sleep test.

Ruling out sleep apnea symptoms in women can be a long and complicated process. Ensuring that this process goes smoothly and ends with a proper diagnosis can be frustrating. Because so many of the symptoms are generalized, testing will be necessary in most cases. Sleep apnea is an extremely life disrupting disorder but it can be successfully treated in most cases.