Many people find snoring laughable or annoying, but they don’t think of it as a critical health condition. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is much more common in women with PCOS, and it may cause or heighten any number of symptoms and other conditions, including negative impacts on blood sugar metabolism, blood pressure regulation, organ health, and all cardiac functions. OSA disrupts sleep to the point where you experience symptoms like non-refreshing sleep, feeling sleepy during the day, having frequent headaches, experiencing problems with memory, learning, and concentration, and feeling irritable, anxious, depressed, and moody.
In other words, limited and/or poor quality sleep contributes to and/or causes anxiety and depression. How do you know you have OSA? All of the above symptoms may be indicators, and a big one is that you have loud snoring (so loud that other people notice, comment on it, and complain about it, kick you out of bed, or leave and go sleep somewhere else). If you’re carrying excess weight, OSA is more likely to be a problem.
Because OSA contributes so strongly to a poor state of mental health, if you have any suspicion that you have it, you owe it to yourself to get it checked out. Typically, if OSA is suspected by your doctor, you’ll be sent to a sleep lab for an overnight sleep study, in which electrodes will be attached to your head and select points on your body, and you’ll be observed by both a human being and machines while sleeping. The test will be analyzed and a determination will be made.
There are a few ways to treat OSA, including weight loss, elevating your bed, utilizing allergy pills or inhalers at night, practicing the digeridoo religiously (seriously – it’s an Australian instrument that strengthens muscles in your throat), utilizing a specially crafted mouth device or small inserts that affix to your nose or, most commonly, with a CPAP machine. CPAP stands for continuous positive airway pressure, and it prevents your airway from collapsing or becoming blocked.
For many people, when they get their OSA diagnosed and treated properly, they feel well-rested, less moody, and less depressed. They may have more energy to exercise, and consequently lose weight. Obviously, there’s a really strong cause-and-effect relationship between inadequate and poor quality sleep and mood disorders. It’s not surprising there’s a PCOS link. If you’d like to learn more, there is ample information on the internet, and the type of doctor that typically treats sleep disorders medically is a pulmonologist. Health psychologists treat the behavioral aspects of sleep issues, by teaching sleep hygiene and ways to overcome non-compliant medical behaviors.
Sources:
Nitsche K, Ehrmann DA. Obstructive sleep apnea and metabolic dysfunction in polycystic ovary syndrome. Best Pract Res Clin Endocrinol Metab. 2010 Oct;24(5):717-30.
Tasali E, Van Cauter E, Ehrmann DA. Polycystic Ovary Syndrome and Obstructive Sleep Apnea. Sleep Med Clin. 2008 Mar;3(1):37-46.
Gretchen Kubacky, Psy.D. is a Health Psychologist in private practice in West Los Angeles, California. She has completed the inCYST training. She specializes in counseling women and