Sleep clinic

My wife thinks I have apnea pretty bad. Like, I'll stop breathing, then she'll hear a train passing through when I come out of it.

I've thought about doing the test, but right now I can't get more than 2-3 hours of sleep a night. I'd be hell on the nurses because I can't fall asleep at all on my back.

 

I had a sleep study done 17 years ago. I was put in a room with no windows, TV, etc. They wired me up about 9:30 p.m. and bedtime was about 10. I was allowed to sleep until about 6-6:30. I was told to sleep on my back, which I never do, and made it really hard to fall asleep. In the morning, they served me breakfast and at about 8, the second part of my sleep tests began. I was given 15 minutes in which to fall asleep. If I did, I was allowed to sleep for 15-20 minutes. If I didn't, I had to stay awake for at least an hour, at which time they'd give me another 15 minutes in which to fall asleep and so on. That lasted about 6 or 7 hours.

They weren't testing me for apnea, which is why they did the second, morning part of testing. The whole thing wasn't much fun, but it wasn't terrible. If you're allowed, I recommend bringing your own pillow.

Good luck!

 

Sleep apnea doesn't just affect the person who has it. My husband's snoring is so bad from his apnea that on some nights he should be more worried about me putting a pillow over his face than the fear of not breathing because of apnea. Granted, I know it's not his fault, but he refuses to go to the doctor over it. So I've spent the last several years not being able to sleep because I can't sleep through how loud it gets sometimes...and I'm a heavy sleeper. I just get so frustrated some nights that I feel like I'm loosing my mind.

 

Wear boxer briefs or tightie whiteys to avoid the lil' sausage from popping through the pee hole in boxers.

 

I need a lot of sleep and honestly, it's hearing stories like these that make me convinced I can never be married.

 

I did one of these a while back at the doctor's suggestion. I hadn't shown symptoms of it (and my wife agreed). They woke me up halfway through and put the CPAP on me--it was horrible. When after about 30 minutes of that thing I not only wasn't asleep but my heart rate et al was up, they came in and took it off.

I had a mouth thing prescribed for me, but I don't wear it because I can't get to sleep with the damn thing in.

 

Noted. I guess rubbing one out to help me get to sleep is off the board.

 

It took me three days of misery to get used to a C-PAP, but now I can't sleep without it (as some of you might recall from past posts). When the power was out for four days here after Katrina, I nearly checked myself into a hospital after being without sleep almost that entire time. Thank goodness a co-worker had power and invited me to sleep at his place (and I did, for 11 uninterrupted hours).

It's hard to adjust to a C-PAP, especially if you have other sleep issues, but I'd be dead if I'd tried to survive the last decade without one. I'm certain of it.

 

Hey, do whatcha gotta do. It's a sleep study, not a sex study.

 

For some reason, I get the feeling if you did, you wouldn't be the first....

 

The room I was in when I did my sleep study had cameras in it, so the nurses/doctors could observe my sleep, so you might want to keep that in mind when you're, um, settling in for the night.

 

Tell them you usually go to sleep watching porn and ask if they have DVD player for your use. Worth a shot.