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Lupus and sleep disturbance

I find itimpossible to fall asleep. As soon as I am about to sleep, I feel suffocation or numbness in head and wake up. My MRI show hypertense Lesions in the brain? Any comments
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Avatar universal
Hi

It is good that you are following up with your doctor for apnea and disturbed sleep. Besides, I feel that the following input might also be of some use to you.

The central nervous system is clinically involved in approximately 40% of all systemic lupus erythematosis patients. This is known as Neuropsychiatric SLE. When the neuropsychiatric symptoms cannot be attributed to secondary factors such as infections, medication, or metabolic derangements, then they can often be attributed to the SLE disease directly affecting the CNS.

The main symptoms of CNS lupus can be diffuse (generalized seizures, psychosis) or focal (stroke, peripheral neuropathies).

Various autoantibodies have been implicated in the pathogenesis of NPSLE, including anticardiolipin antibodies (aCLs), antineuronal antibodies and lymphocytotoxic antibodies.
In diagnostic imaging of the CNS, magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans often provide evidence for edema or small infarcts, both in focal and diffuse CNS lupus. Usually hemorrhages, emboli, calcifications and petechiae give a hyperdense image on MRI.

However, in such cases, conventional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) may be unremarkable or show only nonspecific abnormalities. But a quantitative MRI technique known as Magnetization Transfer Imaging (MTI) has been found to be sensitive to macroscopic and microscopic brain tissue changes, in these patients, where no explanatory abnormalities could be found on conventional MRI.

You can perhaps discuss this with your doctor for a further evaluation.

Take care.

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Avatar universal
I am following up for the apnea. I had 15 interupptions per hour. However the doctor suspect that I have Cental Nervous System affected by Lupus. They have me on high dose of Prednisone. So sleep will disappear any way. Who knows what is next. Thanks for being kind to respond.........
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
If the machine is not helping you at all, whoever prescribed your cpap needs to hang in there with you until it is certain your apnea is therapeutically treated. Cpap treatment often requires a tweaking of pressure, change of masks, etc. before it is fine tuned. If you find your health professional is not helpful, there is a forum called cpaptalk dedicated to helping cpap users be successful in their treatment.

By the way, the oxygen deprivation caused by sleep apnea can cause those lesions that show up on the brain. I have them, kept getting more and bigger ones until I started treating my sleep apnea, and haven't seen and further problems.

Maybe you have some other things going on too that can cause you to feel bad. That does not change your need to treat your apnea. Not doing so puts you at high risk for hypertension, cardiac problems, diabetes, cognitive impairment, and the perils of impaired driving.
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Avatar universal
Thanks for responding. Yes I had sleep study done and I had mild Sleep Apnea. However the machine is not helping me at all.  
Helpful - 0
Avatar universal
Have you had a sleep study to determine exactly what it is that causes you to feel like you are suffocating?

Could you possibly have obstructive sleep apnea? A cpap machine could help with that.

Ask your neuro doc if the lesions are located in a place they could cause central sleep apnea. If so, there are specialized cpap machines that work like a ventilator to deal with it.

Especially with other health issues to fight, sleep is so important to restoring your body for each day's stresses.  A sleep study would avoid a lot of guessing or trial and error, and could help you know how to get the sleep you need.

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