Sleep Apnea

If you are like me, you didn’t know much about sleep apnea or realize how many people have it. Something like a quarter of men 38 and older suffer from a condition that leads to temporarily stopping their breathing during sleep. In my case it’s obstructive sleep apnea which means part of the tissue in my throat blocks my breathing. All of this adds up to very little REM sleep and thus very little rest regardless of the hours of sleep and in the long run can lead to high blood pressure and heart problems amongst other problems.

Last week I had a sleep study–a rather strange process where they pretty much turn you into Picard when he’s turned into a Borg. I had 24 different sensors on my body and then was told to sleep. Not long into that they added a mask that pushed air through my nose thus keeping the tissue from collapsing.
Even with the Borglike wiring, I still had a better sleep than normal and was ‘lucky’ enough to take my own machine home that day. cough, cough.

On a more serious note, the breathing contraption has made me far more awake and alert after just a few days and I’m feeling better than I have in a long time. I need to return to regular workouts–workouts I was too tired for before–and get my weight down which will help with the sleep apnea, but I’m likely a candidate for some sort of treatment for good given I was a pretty loud snorer well before the relatively recent weight gains.

While I don’t usually go into this kind of thing–if you do feel tired a lot of the time or have a spouse who can’t stand your snoring, look into doing a sleep study. It’s made me much happier in a relatively short time.

In no time, I’ll be complaining about the mask. (And thanks for the advice Cal).

One thing that was remarkable is the number of people I’ve learned who have the condition already.

All that said, a return to normal posting is imminent.