Tuesday, March 6, 2012

Sleep Study

Everyone wish me luck. I'm having a sleep study done tomorrow night and I'm a little nervous and freaked out about having strangers watch me sleep.  I have to have it done though.  I've snored since I was in my early thirties, but it's just gotten worse and worse. On January 2, 2011 I quit smoking and quickly put on 30  pounds on top of the 30-40 I was already over my ideal weight.

The snoring reached a whole new level to the point where my wife started sleeping in our guest bedroom.  I'm never completely rested no matter how long I sleep.  I wake up with headaches and a sore throat at least a couple of times a week.  Even though my family says they've never seen me stop breathing while I sleep, I'm concerned that I have sleep apnea which will lead to a heart attack or other long term health issues.

So I finally made an appointment with the local sleep center and the doctor is sure that he can help cure my snoring with a Darth Vader breathing machine called a C-PAP or Continuous Positive Air Pressure device.

I'm looking forward to finally sleeping restfully, waking up without a headache, and not feeling like I could fall asleep at any time of the day.  I'm looking forward to actually dreaming when I sleep.  I'm looking forward to sharing a bed with my wife again.

However, to do that I have to let some strangers attach a bunch of wires to me and then watch me sleep.  They said they will most likely come in part way through the night and slap one of the machines on me and I should wake up on Thursday morning feeling more rested than I have in a long time. 

Fingers crossed...

5 comments:

  1. GL with it. My brother has to use a gizmo at night (not a Darth Vader, but a snorkle-like thing in his mouth). He says you get used to it.

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  2. Hopefully it's not Sleep Apnea.
    My mom has been diagnosed with that and when they did one of those sleep studies on her they found that she was going for sometimes 30 seconds at a time without breathing over night.
    Scary shit man -
    Hope you get some good news and it's nothing serious!!!

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  3. I've had a few sleep studies done. It is just awkward more than anything else. Hooking me up seemed to take about 1/2 hour. Then trying to get to sleep afterwards was difficult for me. Just try not to get too anxious about it, if possible.

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  4. Light, did you wind up with one of the C-PAP devices? If so, are you able to sleep with it pretty easily and did it improve the quality of your sleep?

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  5. If you send me your e-mail address I would prefer to answer the questions there. My e-mail addy is smilingbrownbear@netscape.net.

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