:/ This bitch right here. My guess is that I’ll need yet another one to determine if I have sleep apnea. This whole thing is such a massive pain in the ass, I just want to cry.
I had a sleep study at home a couple years ago because I’m a pretty low-energy person and the doctors wanted to know if there was something wrong with my sleep. It showed sleep apnea. So I tried a CPAP, and I could not sleep with it on. I tried for like a year. I think I got maybe one night of sleep with it in that whole time. So I decided to ask if I could get a mouth guard or something else to treat it. But then they wanted me to do another at-home sleep study. I did, and it showed no sleep apnea. So they wanted me to get one done at a sleep center. After putting it off for like a year, I finally made the appointment a few days ago and got it done last night. But, as per the title, I didn’t fucking sleep. I think it was at least partly because of the thing that connected to my nose–I have trouble tolerating things on my face while I sleep.
I hate this so much. I know that living with untreated sleep apnea is really bad for you, and it makes me so anxious to know that that’s probably going on with me. I won’t even know the results of the “sleep” study for another 2-3 weeks, and then I’ll probably have to make another appointment to try again. Fuck this. No wonder I put it off for so long.
It really feels like sleep medicine hasn’t been thought through very well. You already have trouble sleeping, and then they attach a weird, bulky contraption to you, with flashing lights on it, and expect you to somehow sleep with it on? Seriously? Whoever designed this device has evidently never had any difficulty sleeping.
Depending on the type of apnea you have, you might want to research hydration strategies. I was looking into the surgical options for apnea (pillar procedure was big at the time) and ran across pharynx exercises and hydration being just as successful as the surgery.
Exercises need to be taught by a speech therapist, and the hydration was simply 3 liters of water a day. (Plus your coffee and tea. They didn’t count toward your 3 liters. It had to be 3 liters of plain water.)
The exercise and water worked really well, and we dropped the surgery plans.
Huh. Duly noted.
hi! I also have sleep apnea and have used my cpap for about five years now. what kinda mask do they have on you? I couldn’t use mine at all until I finally got a full seal face mask. they look kinda like this
is that what they have you using? you say “connected to your nose” which is why i ask - that was a big part of the reason why i was never able to use my cpap.
the other thing i’d recommend is a CPAP pillow. they’re concave so they let you sleep on your side and stuff without the cable getting in the way.
that said, not being able to sleep doesn’t always mean that there won’t be any results. i wasn’t able to sleep the first time i did a sleep study but they were still able to get info from my position, the way i was breathing, etc. so it might not be a total lost cause! either way sorry you’re dealing with this, al lthe stuff around sleep apnea is so shitty. it took forever to even get a new machine despite clearly having sleep apnea for years as well.
I’ve tried both the full face masks and the nasal masks, and I can’t sleep with either. I was referring not to a mask but to the little thing they put on/in your nose when you go in for a sleep study–kinda like oxygen patients have. I wanted to to rip it off all night long.
I hope they get something out of this study, at least. Thanks.
That sounds tough, friend. But putting your workup off will likely get you nowhere. I hope you’ll stick to it, and get better ❤️ Have you tried meditating to calm your mind? It can help with sleep issues, and maybe calm your anxiety a bit 🙂
I know putting things off is a bad idea, but I have ADHD, so I do it anyway. My executive dysfunction is pretty bad.
I’ve tried meditating and I didn’t much care for it. It killed my emotions and made me feel dead inside, when I didn’t just fall asleep. Which I guess technically does help with anxiety, but I don’t like the way it made me feel. And I suppose it could help me with getting to sleep, but I don’t usually have a problem with that–my problem is that I apparently stop breathing during the night, assuming I do have sleep apnea.
