Ricc,

20 years ago I had a bicycle accident, and broke my nose. At the moment when I went to the hospital, the doctor didn't fix it, he told me to came back 1 week later and I finally didn't came back. Big mistake. Before the accident I always had very reposing night sleep. After it, this went away and I went into depression without knowing the causes at that time. My septum is bent towards one side but most importantly, the upper air passage of both nostrils are reduced in size because the nose bone was displaced. I can still breath by the nose but with less volume and especially not trough the upper portion of the nose (where the nostrils are thinner). I believe this caused me to lost that reposing night sleep which has an impact on the general well being. I just want to point out that the doctors will probably never agree with this point of view, because it is very hard to evaluate scientifically.

Now to worsen it all, recently I went to see a ENT specialist and instead of reconstructing the air passage properly he went with a shortcut which many ENT specialists use to do. He did what is called a turbinate reduction. The result basically destroyed the remaining of my sleep comfort, but this is another story.

The point is, I believe a restricted air passage in the nostrils can cause depression. During the sleep, there are certain parts inside the nostrils that get more dilated than during day time, and the air passage became even more restricted. Air restriction during sleep may reduce proper oxygenation and the quality of sleep.

As a side note, I don't have sleep apnea. And another side note, the only moment when I had again a resting sleep in the past 20 years was... at the moment of the turbinate surgery when I went under general anesthesia. When I woke up I almost wanted to hug the doctor for that sleep, that's how amazing it was to have a normal rest again. Hint: I had an oxygen intubation during the surgery.