On Yahoo! Health, a writer shares her struggle as a woman to be taken seriously as a candidate for obstructive sleep apnea. She was eventually diagnosed with with mild OSA.
The first clear benefit of treating my sleep apnea was a surprise: My memory became richer. After two weeks on the CPAP, memories began bubbling up, as if I’d run into old friends and family I didn’t usually see. Some people notice a burst of vivid dreams, a phenomenon called “REM rebound,” when your body catches up on the REM dreaming sleep that was previously interrupted.
Good to see something on this issue. Obesity is not in our top five of risk factors for OSA. Obesity is an issue for diabetes, hypertension, low back pain and sleep apnea. We need to get over the “fat” factor as half the patients we see are not over weight. Promoting this leaves many primary docs with little more than to tell the tired patient who is of normal weight “you don’t have sleep apnea “.