Can athletes have sleep apnea? The answer is a resounding YES.
An average of 80% of people who live an active lifestyle are not considered when it comes to sleep apnea-related issues and symptoms, due to popular stereotypes of what a sleep study candidate might look like: someone who is fat and snores.
That’s a dream.
Body composition has nothing to do with sleep quality.
If you’re an athlete who thinks they sleep great but can’t figure out why you wake up feeling sluggish and sore from a previous workout when your gym buddies are running laps around you, something to consider is sleep apnea
This is because when we use energy throughout the day, we build something called sleep pressure.
Imagine a pressure gauge for a steam engine you may have seen in an old cartoon, like Looney Toons. As the pressure builds inside the engine, the gauge goes up and up as the engine works so hard that the pressure starts to push against the interior walls, expanding them to the point that steam starts to literally spill out at the seams, sending nuts and bolts flying everywhere and a whistle blowing to indicate critical mass has been reached.
An athlete’s body is like running an engine. And as your body works and stays active and expends energy in different ways, your internal “fatigue gauge” fills up – sometimes faster and with greater pressure, depending on the day – until all you can do is crash for the night.
If you live an active lifestyle,you feel like you have great sleep but you wake up sluggish, you may have sleep apnea.
Proper rest and recovery are important. You already do the work to stay physically healthy.
Let a dedicated sleep coach help you do the work to rest healthy, too.
