To Sleep...Or Not

I usually don't go into posting really person stories on this blog, but every so often I will. Not that what I'm about to reveal is shocking, illuminating, or even interesting. It just is.


As my three or four readers may have noticed, there was no inciteful post yesterday. There was no post, inciteful or otherwise, period.

It wasn't that I neglected doing so, or forgot, of had nothing to write about. Instead, I had to be elsewhere at the time I usually sit down in front of the Official Weekend Pundit Computer. In this case, I was in a sleep lab associated with one of the local hospitals.

As my dear wife Deb can tell you, I snore. I snore alot. Along with that comes sleep apnea, a problem I've had over the past four or five years. On more than one occasion my snoring has relegated me to sleeping on the couch because it was so loud it kept Deb awake...even when she was wearing ear plugs.

Yes, it's that bad.

Finally, I made a trip to the ENT doc, and he saw I did have a problem. Hence the sleep study at the sleep lab.

The first time was to see if I did indeed have sleep apnea, which it turns out I have in spades.

The second time was to try out a CPAP machine (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure), to select the proper mask and determine the proper machine settings.

The first session wasn't great, being in a strange room, with air too warm and too dry while having a bunch of electrodes attached to by head and legs.

The second session was worse. With the changes in masks and machine settings, while being wired up again, I got very little actual sleep. It...Was...Not...Fun. I ended up taking the day off from work to catch up on my sleep, apnea and all.

The technician assigned to me explained that even if one of those CPAP machines helps, it could take a couple of months to get used to it. A couple of months. Great. But I'm willing to do it, if for no other reason that to make sure Deb gets a full night's sleep without the need for me to sleep elsewhere.

1 comment:

  1. Anonymous5:50 PM

    May save your life as well! Have you ever tried the nose strips? Worked pretty well for me.

