Sleep apnea is a condition that isn’t just fatal. Before you die, sleep apnea can steal your ability to live life to its fullest and enjoy the things you have. We’ve talked before about how sleep apnea could be sapping your productivity at work, but what it does to your time off can be even worse.
Drowsy Evenings
Daytime sleepiness is one of the most characteristic symptoms of sleep apnea. Daytime sleepiness can hit you at any time during the day, but it does tend to increase over the course of the day. You probably managed to fight your way through your workday with determination, necessity, and a lot of caffeine. But by the time you get home, all that is spent, and you may be crashing from caffeine and sugar during your day.
In the evenings, you have little energy to spend on the things you used to enjoy. Hobbies like watching sports on TV, reading a book, building models or tying flies will all make you likely to fall asleep when you have sleep apnea. It’s hard to get anything productive done under those circumstances.
Sleepy Weekends
Weekends are supposed to be for your hobbies and other activities you enjoy, but it’s hard to do that when you have sleep apnea. For people with sleep apnea, the work week is just draining. You get to the weekend and hope you can just catch up on your sleep.
But here’s the problem: it’s not the amount of sleep you get that makes the difference. It’s the quality of sleep. You might find yourself sleeping your weekends away just to try to get caught up, but it never seems to work. And then where’s your time for hobbies?
You Don’t Feel Like Starting
The hardest part of hobbies is getting started. When you want to get started, it’s hard to see anything but the effort required to get up from the comfortable chair (where you’re likely dozing off) to go do something else.
This keeps you from getting started most nights.
All the Joy Is Gone
Most hobbies are work. The main thing that makes them different is the joy that you get from them.But with sleep apnea, this equation gets badly skewed.
Because you’re so tired, the work required to participate in your hobby is dramatically magnified. And, unfortunately, the reward that you get back is reduced. You might find yourself feeling like the things you used to do just don’t provide you any joy anymore.
And the joy is also diminished by the fact that you’re engaging in your hobby less frequently, so you’re losing your skill at it.
Enjoy Life Again
Is sleep apnea draining the joy out of life for you? Let us help. With effective, comfortable, convenient sleep apnea treatment, you can be reinvigorated and enjoy the hobbies and other activities that used to make you happy.
Please call (402) 493-4175 today for an appointment with an Omaha sleep dentist at the Advanced Dental Sleep Treatment Center.
