JayC wrote:
I have sleep disordered breathing ------ I do not have obstructive sleep apnea for the most part unless I am sleeping on my back (rare) and my tongue falls back. OSA is under the sleep disordered breathing umbrella. My hypopnea numbers are higher, and I know that is not just due to the algorythm of my machine!!
I breathe too shallow and/or too slow when I sleep. I have no allergies, no asthma, no shortness of breath or any other lung or breathing issues when I am awake. I admit that I have a tendency to "hold my breath" when discussing some emotions.
Our tiredness can some from other sleep disruptors besides our breathing.....and I don't expect that CPAP will address those sources of tiredness. I have 2 types of insomnia from decades of unconciously avoiding sleep because I felt crappy whenever I awoke......mostly I expect from oxygen desaturation. So while CPAP addresses the desats, it doesn't address the 30 year habit of pushing myself beyond tired before I sucumb to sleep.
I recently started light therapy to address some of my remaining symptoms. I am so far finding an increase in hours slept, and better sleep if I go to bed at the first signs of tiredness rather than pushing through to a second wind...... and of course use my CPAP when I am sleeping!
For me, CPAP is a god-send. It gives me some sleep and improving clarity and energy most days so I can puzzle through addressing remaining symptoms and getting the best improvement and functioning possible.
All the best to you....
J
I apoligize in advance if we are hijacking a pretty much otherwise worthless thread full of drama and banter. If we should take this to private messages thats fine too, however for now I will post here for everyone elses benefit.
I have to ask you J, how the cpap does benefit you if you are not sleeping on your back? Really it is just more out of curiosity as it seems you have condintions far worse then me.
I do have allergies and there is simply no escaping them. Did not even know I had them until a little over a year ago, and tried to remedy them using encasements on all mattresses and pillows, plugging in the ionic breezes I bought a few of from sharper image. Dog hair and dust I just cannot escape. My allergies only come out at night in my room, and I am doing immunotherapy for them (allegy shots twice a week, down to once a week now). been doing them for a year now, with no noticable improvement. the cpap (with heated humidifier) clears my nostrils and I breathe fine that way.
So what other types of therapy are you doing to address your issues? As I mentioned in my first post, I do cpap because I know the long term effects of osa and do not want to be a burden on my family, however truthfully do not think it is the source of my issues.
My sleep studies did show a difference with cpap and that was far less drastic then Surgery, so I embraced it and have remained faithful. Yet there is times I catch myself holding my breath, and cannot help but wonder if it is neurological as opposed to a fat tongue.