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Find out if you may be experiencing some common symptoms of people who have been diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea.
Headaches. Headaches are one of the most common signs of sleep apnea, especially headaches that you feel right when you wake up. “These headaches are of brief duration, and their occurrence and severity increase with increasing OSA severity,” concludes a 1999 study published in the Archives of Internal Medicine. 1 “Treatment of OSA with continuous positive airway pressure … can reduce these headaches.”
“Treatment of OSA with continuous positive airway pressure… can reduce [sleep apnea] headaches.”
Nighttime sweating. Although it’s not one of the signs of sleep apnea that’s most often mentioned, a 2013 study based in Iceland found that nighttime sweating “was threefold higher in untreated OSA patients than in the general population.” 2 The study also noted that treating sleep apnea with positive airway pressure (PAP) decreased nighttime sweating, and advised doctors to “consider the possibility of OSA in … patients who complain of nocturnal sweating.”
Additional signs of sleep apnea
Besides the signs of sleep apnea listed above, there are numerous other symptoms associated with this common condition, including teeth grinding during the night, difficulty concentrating, memory loss, feelings of irritability or depression, mood swings, frequent nighttime urination, and dry mouth or a sore throat upon waking up.
Like the signs of sleep apnea listed above, these symptoms don’t always mean that someone has sleep apnea. But, if you’re experiencing one of more of them regularly, it’s probably time to consult your doctor about whether or not you have a sleep-related breathing disorder, and see if a sleep test is in your future.
References 
1 Source: Loh NK, Dinner DS, Foldvary N, Skobieranda F, Yew WW. “Do patients with obstructive sleep apnea wake up with headaches?” Arch Intern Med. 1999 Aug 9-23;159(15):1765-8. http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/10448780 (accessed October 22, 2013).
2 Source: Erna Sif Arnardottir, Christer Janson, Erla Bjornsdottir, Bryndis Benediktsdottir, Sigurdur Juliusson, Samuel T Kuna, Allan I Pack, Thorarinn Gislason. “Nocturnal sweating—a common symptom of obstructive sleep apnoea: the Icelandic sleep apnoea cohort” Respiratory medicine – Research: BMJ Open 2013;3:5 e002795 doi:10.1136/bmjopen-2013-002795 http://bmjopen.bmj.com/citmgr?gca=bmjopen;3/5/e002795 (accessed October 22, 2013).
