Hi everyone,
I have been speaking with a doctor who may be able to help me with Eagles surgery, but he surprised me by asking me first to have a sleep apnea test. Has anyone else been asked to do this? Is there a link between ES and sleep apnea?
Thanks
N
I wasn’t asked but my sleep apnea is a real thing. Got worse over time and the surgery hasn’t solved it unfortunately.
I’m thinking it probably has to do with obstructive sleep apnea related to the anatomy of our airway. I had a take home sleep study done that showed 16 ‘events’ overnight, usually in the supine position. I’ve been told that especially in patients with TMJD or a recessed lower jaw ( which can happen with TMJD) the tongue tends to fall back when asleep and result in episodes of apnea. This leads to microarousals and subsequently unrefreshing sleep. So it makes sense for those of us whose eagles is caused by TMJD. Unfortunately, eagles surgery wouldn’t fix the problem in this case. Mandible advancing appliances might or CPAP.
Do you wake up tired?
Sorry to hear it hasn’t improved for you 
Not really - always tired since taking lyrica, but it doesn’t seem to be worse as far as I can tell. Anyway, I was just curious if there was a link. Thanks!
Just had a quick look online, & a new study has suggested a link between the vagus nerve & sleep apnea- given this nerve is often affected by ES, maybe this could be a link? I don’t think that sleep apnea has come up much in the discussions though…
Sleep Apnea, Snoring and the Vagus Nerve Connection — A Carrot a Day - Healthy Living Blog
Most of the mornings I wake up feeling worse than before going to bed. Interesting though, that my sleep study registered more than 20 events/hr but half of them were central apnea events.
On the other hand, my nasal turbinates are quite enlarged blocking air too, which might be another reason I can’t properly breath unless I open my mouth, which isn’t good during the night account to what I read about sleep apnea and mouth breathing…
@vdm, I had a turbinate reduction surgery a few years back because I had a chronic nose whistle going on. Sadly it’s still there!?! My nasal airways are super clear, sometimes so clear the inside of my nose gets dry. Gotta wonder why the whistle is still there though!! 
I am contemplating of this but what scares me off is so called empty-nose syndrome. A very rare complication, but people swear it completely ruins their ability to breath.
That sounds awful, not heard of that before…like ES surgery is a balance between surgery risks & quality of life without it!
I looked it up as I haven’t heard of it either! It sounds awful!!!