True_Rebel

Hey True,

I have severe sleep apnea, narcolepsy and cataplexy. I sleep with CPAP at night, when I am sleeping that is. Hope its going well.

Rebel, I haven't been around for awhile, but I'm glad you decided to do the sleep study. Yup, there will be cameras and 18 different wires glued to you. I had it done and now use the C-PAP machine every night. It made a huge difference in my life. There are all kinds of sleep disorders. I hope they figure it out for you. Good luck.

Btls, thanks for stopping by.  You have described my troubles to a t.  The best sleep I get every night is when I sleep in my recliner.  Once I go to bed, I'm waking up about every hour.  After I get up for the morning, I'm sleepy all day and feel just plain exhausted.  I still get through work alright, and I can still get things done after work.  But right after I eat supper, that's a different story.  Starting around 8 every night, I have to start fighting the sleep monster.  For the first time in my life, I'm looking forward to going to a doctor so I can get to being halfway normal.

I too have sleep apnea and have been using a CPAP machine for about 8 years now and it most definitely makes a difference. Before I went in for my sleep study I had a hard time getting up in the morning and I felt tired, like exhausted, when I came home from work. I snored so loud that I would keep people up that were sleeping on the opposite end of the house and one floor up. Since I have started using the CPAP machine, I no longer snore, I have energy to do things after work, and I have even lost weight. I can sleep without the machine, but I sleep better with it now that I have gotten used to it. It only took me about a week to get to the point where I was bothered by the machine. There is also an out patient procedure that uses radio waves to cook the soft palete and shrink the soft tissue in your throat, thus allowing your airway to be more open. I had a friend of mine who sold this equipment to the doctors and he said it felt like you had a minor sore throat for a couple of days and that was all the pain that was associated with it. Good Luck! You will be glad you got this taken care of and your wife will be too!

I had a severe case of sleep apnea to the point where it was making me "space out" and my wife, my family, my boss, and my friends were all concerned that I might be having seizures.  It was affecting my productivity and my energy level and was placing a strain on our marriage.  My wife was very adamant about me seeing my doctor and a few other doctors until finally a neurologist ordered the sleep study.

When I started using the machine the people around me were happy that I had returned to normal and I was happy that my life had returned to normal.  I was once again able to focus on the task at hand and had an increased energy level.  It also cured my snoring.

I know other people who use the machine and can't do without it.  I don't take with me when I travel because it has a humidifier and needs to be drained and I always have a ton of other gear to worry about (toys for vacation trips and survey equipment for work trips).  I don't notice any ill effects if I do without it for a short while.

Ronskidog,

Have you been happy with the machine?  Do you think it has relieved your sleep apnea?  I would love to hear what your thoughts are on your "treatment".

Thanks for the comments, guys.  I have already decided to go ahead with it.  These last couple of days have been terrible sleepwise.  Although I have my reservations about how great the treatment is supposed to make me feel, I am looking forward to getting some relief.

Hey Rebel, this subject hits close to home with me being that I have sleep apnea.  Three years ago I did a split night study, half a night of "normal sleep" and half a night with a CPAP machine.  It took me me a while to get to sleep in the strange bed with wires hooked up all over me, and it took even longer to get to sleep after they woke me up and hooked up the CPAP machine.  At the end of the test they told me I had sleep apnea.
About two weeks later I was set up with a CPAP machine.  The technician came to my house and explained the machine to me and asked me which type of mask I wanted.  I decided to with one that fits over my nose only.  It was difficult to sleep with the machine at first as it limits movement because you are connected to it with a hose which feeds the mask.  I got used to it after about two weeks.
I also looked into corrective surgery that would enable me to sleep without the machine.  They said the surgery would be painful, very expensive, and only had a 30% chance of success.  Needless to say I'm still using the machine.
I would say that by the symptoms you described, it sounds like you have sleep apnea.  I'm no doctor so I guess you'll have to go through with the test.
Special thanks to broncofan46 for providing an excellant overview of the sleep test and sleep apnea.

Rebel

I would encourage you to take the test, you have nothing to lose and everything to gain.  You already know that on a consistant basis throughout  the night you stop breathing, obviously this is not a good thing.  While you might not have any health problems now from your bad sleeping habits, but do you really want to wait for them to come before you deal with the problem? 

Don't worry about embaressing yourself, these are Doctors that specialize in sleep problems, they have seen it all.  Think of the test as an excuse to take a long nap on a weekday afternoon, who wouldn't want that?

Now that I've tried to talk you into it, I should practice what I preach.  I've been told by numurous girlfriends I'm a bad sleeper too ;-)

Rebel:

I can tell you the basics of a sleep study.  They hook you up to several machines and watch you sleep--hopefully for several hours.  It would be best to be a little tired when you go in because it isn't easy to sleep while watched and hooked up to machines as you can imagine.

It is the best way to diagnose several different sleep problems--obstructive sleep apnea, narcolepsy, involuntary movements of the legs, etc.  You are monitored with an EEG, oxygen sensor, maybe an EKG, etc. They can tell which stages of sleep you are in and for how long. These people have seen everything--you probably couldn't embarass them or yourself.

One of the main things they look for is sleep apnea.  That is where the soft tissues in the back of your throat relax and block your airway while you sleep.  This causes apneic spells (where you stop breathing) or hypopneic spells ( where you almost stop breathing)  They tally these up at a rate per hour.  Normal is about 3 or 4.  Abnormal studies can show 80 or 90 spells per hour.  If they do a split night study, they will see how you do with a CPAP machine to reduce the number of apneic spells.. This is a mask that delivers air or oxygen under pressure--they can adjust how much--say 8-12 cm H2O pressure.  They will then see if they reduce your spells and how much.

That CPAP machine would then be likely the first line of treatment.  Losing weight ultimately helps a lot.  People with a neck size greater than 16 are at risk especially.  The danger of sleep apnea is that for one you get low on O2 at night.  It can cause high blood pressure or heart arrythmias.  The other danger is that your are sleepy during the day.  A quiz given to people measures their Hypersomnolence index to see if they might have sleep apnea.  I have seen people who fall asleep at a long traffic light--yikes!!

I am sure you can Google better info than this or visit WebMD --look up obstructive sleep apnea and/or sleep study.

Good luck