vanaabegra

Sleep study was a while ago, and I finally got to talk to the doctor about the results. Yep, as suspected, i have minor sleep apnea. The stop breathing times averages to 7 per hour, 5 is considered normal. However, the shallow breathing combined with the stopped brings it up to 29/hour which is twice the normal 15/hour. But we discovered I can go to sleep during the day pretty much on demand. I took four naps the following day. The average time to fall asleep once the lights were out? 3.3 minutes. Best time was my 11:15 nap, 2 minutes. 1. 2. Sleep. I thought that was good. Apparently it is bad. And it has a name. Hypersomnia (http://my.webmd.com/content/article/105/107671.htm). It seems to be related, or have a causal relationship with sleep disorder (really, wow, being tired during the day related to sleep? Brilliant!)

So, in order to avoid the machine (CPAP), I am going with the mouth guard that forces the lower jaw to "jut out" a bit and hold the mouth open a little. 70% of fixing the apnea. after that is the machine 90% fixing apnea (well 100%, but 10% of people cannot "get used to it").

Once I try the guard for a while (4 months), I will re-evaluate and possibly do another sleep study. If I am still having issues, we go to the CPAP. Now, interestingly enough, the Doctor is not entirely convinced that the level of apnea is the reason for the Hypersomnia. So, he is taking out the variables. If we can get to "normal" sleep, and the hypersomnia goes away, cool. If not, then we have one less thing to worry about and something new to work on. Joy. It could take 8 months to get to the point of knowing.

However severe my hypersomnia appears to be, i do not get affected when I am physically engaged in activity, or active with other people. But sitting in my little cube, all caffeined up, even with good angry music pumped into my ears, I just do head nods.

Perhaps the best news was the non-news. He did not ask me to start taking drugs. Yay for no drugs. The last thing i need is to be a juicer and go from sleeping pills at night to wakey-wakey pills in the morning.

I like the pamphlet. "Use your bedroom only for sleep, sex, and times of illness."



Bah.