It takes energy to web-log, and I've felt bereft of it lately. That I may suffer from
sleep apnea is the current possibility (suggested by my doctor and rather disconcertingly seconded by everyone I've mentioned it to, all of whom seem to know at least one person who wears a
breathing mask while sleeping; see photo below). I can't say for sure whether or not I might "have" it; I just know that I've been very tired for many weeks now.
Regardless of type, the individual with sleep apnea is rarely aware of having difficulty breathing, even upon awakening. Sleep apnea is recognized as a problem by others witnessing the individual during episodes or is suspected because of its effects on the body (sequelae). Symptoms may be present for years (or even decades) without identification, during which time the sufferer may become conditioned to the daytime sleepiness and fatigue [emphasis mine] associated with significant levels of sleep disturbance. [–Wikipedia]
Anyway, I'll be spending
a night in a "sleep clinic" soon. If I "have" it, will
singing lessons be prescribed? I'd do them, even wear a
continuous positive airway pressure device (CPAP), to feel like doing again the lonely but lively singing known as blogging.
I hope that singing exercises will suffice. Wearing a CPAP isn't pretty. The wearer shown does, however, report:
Easy; no more 1- to 4-hour naps after work, I get up in the morning easier, my family does not make me sleep in the basement any more (because of the snoring1), no more "bad" dreams, my blood pressure is down, my energy is up, and I have not fallen asleep while driving2 since getting the CPAP.
_______________
- For the record, my wife wakes me less often than once a month to tell me to roll onto my side (where I'm much less likely to snore).
Speaking of rolling over, she reported reading about a strap one guy wears around his torso, with two big balls positioned about at his shoulder blades. Whenever he tries to roll onto his back, I guess he bounces back onto his side.
- I fell asleep driving home from work in June 1990. I woke up doing fifty-five in the concave-curving median of I-40 at Chapel Hill. (That is, I was going toward the oncoming traffic.) The next week I was diagnosed as having CFS (chronic fatigue syndrome). Makes me wonder whether sleep apnea and CFS have any scientifically demonstrated correlation.
Can Sleep Apnea Cause Fibromyalgia (FM)- and Chronic Fatigue Syndrome (CFS)-like Symptoms?
Hey Dad! Yes Matt's two brothers and his oldest sister have sleep apnea and sleep with CPAPs. If you get one, be sure the unit is not placed where the dog is likely to fart on the air intake. According to Mark that is a very unpleasant way to be awoken.
ReplyDeleteJeez, Pineapple Girl, as though I weren't already apprehensive enough about the possibility that I might have to wear a CPAP!
ReplyDeleteI'm disturbed by the fact (apparently) that CPAP wearers have to pretty much always lie on their back. For years, I've been lying almost exclusively on one side and alternately on the other, as is sort of implied by my statement that I disturb my wife by snoring less than once a month. (It's when I'm lying on my back that I tend to snore.)
Not that I have to be on my back to experience sleep apnea, obviously, for if that were true then I shouldn't be experiencing it much. Of course, there's a chance that my night in the sleep lab will tell me that I don't experience sleep apnea—in which case, what is draining my energy, then?
Ironically, I'm pretty sure that worrying about it is also draining me.
Have you had any bloodwork done?
ReplyDeleteI had extensive blood work done in November, and my doctor did two more studies last week, for Lyme disease—"You do not want it to be that," she said—or low testosterone level. (She said she didn't mean to be getting personal, but did I experience strong erections of a morning? I said I did.) Both of these tests were negative.
ReplyDeleteBut see today's "Brain drain" for the renewed consideration of another theory about my recent almost chronic fatigue....