Groggy and Lethargic ALL DAY, Never feel refreshed even with 8h+

I'm 23 and I've been having this problem for awhile and can't seem to get it fixed. If I get 8 hours of sleep I wake up feeling groggy and have to deal with being sluggish and having "brain fog" all day. I just feel so slow. I never feel refreshed upon awakening, and I am yawning consistently all day. I'm always lacking energy, my short term memory is terrible..and my head is just all cloudy. I think it may have something to do with the actual quality of my sleep, specifically the deep sleep that I get because after being diagnosed with sleep apnea and using a CPAP it has not made the slightest bit of a difference. I also have a deviated septum, can only breath out of 1 nostril, and am congested a lot of the time. I REALLY need some help so I really hope you all can take the time to read all of this.

The interesting thing is, if I take a Nap I wake up feeling refreshed...and that's the only time I ever truly feel refreshed and awake. If I happen to be dead tired at some point in a given day to the point I can't help but close my eyes and sleep (usually when I get 5-7 hours of sleep the previous night) I'll get 3-4 hours of usually uninterrupted sleep and for once wake up feeling like how the normal person probably feels after getting a full night's rest. But what's funny is even though I feel refreshed after the nap, maybe around 7-8 hours after that I get tired to where I sleep again, but in that time span that I'm awake from the nap I feel pretty good.

I've had problems with falling asleep frequently in the past dating as close to 3 weeks ago. For example at the beginning of the year I couldn't sleep until 5 am, then that became 7 am, then that became 9 am....I'd eventually fix it then get off schedule and end up pushing it back to the point where it gets completely thrown off again. Even when i would purposely get minimal sleep, or none at all on a night, so that I can sleep at a normal time the following night ity would end up turning in to naps and I'd have to try my hardest to stay asleep for a reasonable amount of time (like at LEAST 5 hours)...even though I got little to no sleep the previous night.

But currently I've established a good routine and I don't plan on letting it slip this time. I've been sleeping from 11 - 12 and waking up from 7:30 - 8:30 these past 2-3 weeks. I can't remember one time in these past few weeks I had uninterrupted sleep. I'm waking up 3-4 times a night that I know of, and about half of the nights these past few weeks I've been waking up with drool and I would have to go to the bathroom and wash my mouth before going back to bed.

I think being able to sleep without waking up in the middle of the night may be part of the reason. I also have a hunch that there's some type of problem with my sleep routines in correlation to my REM sleep. Every time I establish a routine I feel different upon waking up and throughout the day. For example I was sleeping at 12:30 and waking up at 7 daily without alarm assistance late last year and I feel different then I do now. Another routine I had last year was sleeping at 10 and waking up at 4 daily (no alarm) for a couple weeks..I would feel different than the 12:30 - 7 routine and my sleep routine now. 2 years ago I had a routine where I slept from 11:30 - 7. On this routine I'd feel dead tired by 11 and I'd just pass out by 11:30. I'd wake up at 7 and if I remember correctly, I don't think my sleep was interrupted much if at all during this routine. I'd wake up feeling pretty refreshed when I was on this pattern. Compare that to my routine now, I don't get that feeling of tiredness where I can just close my eyes and fall asleep just like that. I have to turn everything ofd ahead of time and try to put myself in a rested state and "try" to sleep. Also on my routine now I'm sleeping 8 hours and hitting snooze on my alarm and have trouble just getting up even if I've slept 8+ hrs. On the aforementioned from 2 years ago it was like my body had it's own clock and would wake up automatically feeling up, and same thing with some of the other routines I've had that have been within normal sleep times. Earlier this year I was sleeping from 2:30 - 10:30 for 2 weeks and I felt like complete crap. I felt even more groggy and slow then I even do now.

Now I've been diagnosed with Sleep apnea but I'm skeptical, here's why. I originally took a sleep test in early 2009 for the reasons of this thread, always being groggy and never having energy. The results were negative, they said I had no sleep issues. I even told them that I had a cold so maybe it interfered with the test they said no it wouldn't. Fast forward a year and a half later I take another sleep study test at a different place, this time because for reasons of not being able to sleep. My sleep ended patterns ended up getting corrected because I began full time work not long after so I didn't even really follow up. I found out this year that the results from the test was that I had Moderate Obstructive Apnea with an AHI of 19.

But when I went for a follow the doctor told me that during the test, I only had "hypopneas" or whatever it is when I was on my back. He said this never happened when I was on my side and that more or less when I was on my side everything was test. Now..I only slept on my back for the sleep study because of all the uncomfortable stuff they hook up to you. At home when I sleep, I sleep on my side probably 95% of nights. I started using the CPAP and it made NO difference. Maybe my pressure was too low? Well I went in a few weeks ago for another study this time with the CPAP to optimize the pressure. Again I felt no different that day then I do every other day..still slow still yawning, still groggy.

But I thought something very interesting happened during the sleep study, and it goes back to my point of there being issues with my REM sleep. I fell asleep around 11 during the test, on my back. I remember waking up and it must have been around 12. After about 10 minutes I fell back asleep. Then I woke up feeling pretty refreshed and awake. I thought it was morning. I called my attendant to come in, and she told me it was 3:15 and I was shocked because I thought it was time to get up.
She remarked to me how I had just gotten really good Deep sleep. And I told her I know I feel good and refreshed. But the study ends at 6. So I made myself go back to sleep and I wake up at 6 feeling HORRIBLE in comparison. I felt so groggy and sluggish and the rest of that day I felt fatigued. She even confirmed to me that my 12 - 3:15 sleep I was getting better, deeper sleep then the stretch after that.

I'm at the point where I'm sick and tired of all this. I don't know why my body is like this. It's taking a big toll on my quality of life and I never have energy, a clear head, and desire to do anything. I avoid the smallest things because I dread the amount of energy they take, which to me feels like a lot. I've been on ADHD medications from my doctor, all the main ones, for the past couple of months and they haven't made a difference. The times during trial where I took a fairly large dose (by prescribed standards) of various meds, I'd just feel really speedy and still never have a clear head or that much energy. A lot of the yawning and fatigue would still be there. And even worse even with their lack of great benefit I wouldn't be able to fall asleep when it comes time to. And I should also note that the time when I have the most energy during the day is about 2 or less hours from the time I should be sleeping that night. It's funny, I'll be fatigued the whole day and at 9pm I'll finally feel like I'm awake and ready to do something, but I need to sleep at 11 - :11:30pm ...