No more sleep meds for me !

[Spirit]

Sunday night, I was desperate to get some lengthy sleep, I constantly sleep 6 hours, once or twice a week 8 hours. I alway's feel good sleeping 8 hours or more. So, I took some melatonin to prolong sleep. Next day, to my suprise my AHI was 14.4, AI 2.0 YIKES !!! So, my sleep doctor was correct. No sedatives, no alcohol.

I have everything in balance, AHI is good, leaks rate is zero, since mask size change, but length I sleep still suffers, most times if I sleep less then 8 hours, I do not feel like taking a nap, but I feel blah all day !!! I'll have energy and become active, but my energy level depletes quickly.

Has anyone found a method to, sleep more then 6 hours !! Real bummer, cpap treatment is under control, but I have a difficult time sleeping 8 hours or more. My last adjustment for 100% quality sleep

[SleepingUgly]

A method to sleep more than 6 hours total or more than 6 hours in a row without waking? The former: Yes, roll over and sleep some more. The latter: No, I never sleep even 6 hours without waking up.

[kteague]

Is it an option to increase your pressure just a bit to offset the sleep med effect?

[Spirit]

A method to sleep more than 6 hours total or more than 6 hours in a row without waking? The former: Yes, roll over and sleep some more. The latter: No, I never sleep even 6 hours without waking up.

Hi, wish it were that easy. Once my eyes pop open, going back to sleep is impossible. Sure beats consistent 3-4 hours, in the beginning. I need to figure out a way to sleep 8 hours consistent. Thanks for feedback

[Spirit]

Is it an option to increase your pressure just a bit to offset the sleep med effect?

Hi K,
Seems I would need to offset pressure alot. My AHI avg is under 2.0, just need to figure out a way to sleep more then 6 hours per night. I'll be set. Sleep med was an experiment. and obviously didn't work. If I would have slept 8 hours or more, then increasing pressure would be an option. Thanks for feedback

[beckah]

Is something specific waking you up, Spirit? Do you have black out shades or curtains in your bedroom to keep the room dark? Do you get too hot or too cold and is that waking you up? Maybe if you brainstorm about what exactly is causing you to wake after 6 hours, you can come up with a solution.

Best of luck!

beckah

[BleepingBeauty]

Has anyone found a method to, sleep more then 6 hours !!

Been there and (yes!) done that.

Awhile back, my therapy was going pretty well, but I wasn't sleeping enough hours (between 5 and 6, when I felt like I needed 7-8. Muffy put the hammer down on me about good sleep hygiene, and I followed those rules. Have to say, it worked for me. I'm now averaging between 7.5 and 8 hours of sleep a night, and I sure do feel the difference.

Here's a list of easy do's and don'ts when it comes to good sleep hygiene: http://www.uihealthcare.com/topics/medi ... index.html

*Spirit, if you're already following good sleep hygiene, I don't know what to make of your difficulty. Hope you can resolve it, though.

[Spirit]

Is something specific waking you up, Spirit? Do you have black out shades or curtains in your bedroom to keep the room dark? Do you get too hot or too cold and is that waking you up? Maybe if you brainstorm about what exactly is causing you to wake after 6 hours, you can come up with a solution.

Best of luck!

beckah

Hi Becka,
Thanks for your input. I have super dark tint on my bedroom windows, I live at a T intersection and car lights were alway's illuminating my room.

Hmmm, now that you mention it, I sleep much better when room temps are between 65-68 degrees. I sleep best during winter months. I do wake up tossing blanket to the floor, any other time. I have enlarged thyroid, but thyroid labs alway's return perfectly normal. According to my AHI, I'm sleeing great, just not longer then 6 hours, unless I'm exhaustingly tired.

[Spirit]

Has anyone found a method to, sleep more then 6 hours !!

Been there and (yes!) done that.

Awhile back, my therapy was going pretty well, but I wasn't sleeping enough hours (between 5 and 6, when I felt like I needed 7-8. Muffy put the hammer down on me about good sleep hygiene, and I followed those rules. Have to say, it worked for me. I'm now averaging between 7.5 and 8 hours of sleep a night, and I sure do feel the difference.

Here's a list of easy do's and don'ts when it comes to good sleep hygiene: http://www.uihealthcare.com/topics/medi ... index.html

*Spirit, if you're already following good sleep hygiene, I don't know what to make of your difficulty. Hope you can resolve it, though.

Hi Beauty,
Thanks for input. I will admit, I had very poor sleep hygiene till cpap treatment. I was an insomniac, afraid to fall asleep, due to suffocation. But cpap treatment corrected this problem. I normally go to bed approx midnight - 1pm, which is way better then 6am - 7am,. But, I've tried going to bed early 10pm, and still cannot sleep more then 6 hours. Only when I'm completely exahusted. But will read the link you provided. One thing I don't do is go to bed at the same time every evening, bedtime varies up to 1am,.

[Jay Aitchsee]

Spirit, I've just read most of your posts and I can sympathize. I've suffered from fatigue for 10 years or so, can never sleep more than 6 hours. Like you, about 6 am my eyes "pop open" and I have to get up. It doesn't really matter what time I go to bed, I can't sleep in. About 8 years ago, I had my first PSG and was diagnosed with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea. I thought, "great I"ll get a CPAP and I won't be tired any more." Like you, it didn't work, I felt the same on or off the machine. At the time of my sleep study, I was also diagnosed with severe PLMD. Along in there somewhere, I was diagnosed with clinical depression (treated and recovered) . Anyway, because the cpap didn't provide any tangible benefit, I would use it for a few months and quit, then start up again. All the while, I started learning more about disturbed sleep and treatment. I learned how to get the data out of my machine, change the pressure, video recorded myself, changed doctors several times, until I found a couple I could work with. Over time, I got my apnea under control (AHI consistantly under 4, AI about .5) but I still don't feel much better. Now this sounds like a sad story, but it has some positives. I know that something besides apnea is causing my fatigue so I can continue to search for a "cure". Being on cpap continously for the past year or so has lowered my blood pressure about 20 points and that's a good thing. I've learned that you need more than a pulmonologist because they can't help you if you don't feel better after your apnea is controlled, you need a sleep cerified neurologist as well. As you discovered, I learned that certain meds could really hammer you. The only sleep medicine I could recommend would be low dose (5mg) ambian. I wouldn't take any sedative unless it was with extreme caution. A couple of meds I could suggest would be Provigil and Cymbalta. Of the two, Provigil seems to be the most benign, but probably the least effective. Cymbalta really works for me in getting rid of fatigue, it is an anti-depressent that has recently been approved to to combat pain in fibromyagia suffers. It works, but I'm not really comfortable taking it because I'm just not sure how it works.
Spirit, don't take this the wrong way, but even though you say you are not depressed, I'm guessing you are. Sleep deprivation does that to you. So here's what I'd recommend: Stay on the CPAP, get yourself a neurologist, sleep cetified preferrably, (don't give up your pulmonologist) tell the neurologist you've got your apnea controlled and start to explore other possibilities. Maybe, at least for the short run, start on Cymbalta. It could help with both the fatigue and depression, if you have it. Of course, it might not work for you. These meds are kind of fickle. The important thing is not to give up. You know you are doing good things for yourself with the CPAP, keep studying and looking for the rest of your cure. Have faith, as I do, that eventually we'll both find it.
Hang in there,
Jay
PS: I've put most everything out there but if there is something you'd like more detail on, PM me.

[kteague]

At the time of my sleep study, I was also diagnosed with severe PLMD.

Jay, what are you doing about your PLMD?

[tonycog]

You might check out this book:

Sound Sleep, Sound Mind: 7 Keys to Sleeping Through the Night by Dr. Barry Krakow
http://www.amazon.com/Sound-Sleep-Mind- ... 0471650641

I've only read part of it, but I've found some good suggestions there. I bought it based on some recommendations here.

Tony

[JointPain]

I'm usually very consistent with the time I wake up, no matter what time I go to sleep. If that's too late, I don't feel too well the next day.

The only times my wake up times get seriously out of whack are while adjusting to a time zone change (i.e. jetlag) and if I need to be awake by a specific time and I forget to set an alarm. So, I always set an alarm whenever I need to wake up at a specific time. It also helps when adjusting to jetlag 1/2 of the time. If I become alert before the alarm goes off, I try not to open my eyes and keep relaxed and I often just drift back to sleep. Since my expectation is that it will be at most a short wait until the alarm goes off, I regard early wake up as a free "snooze". (I very, very rarely use the snooze button on the alarm: when the alarm goes off, I get up.)

So, you might try setting an alarm for a specific wakeup time and start falling to sleep 6 hours before then. When you're waking up with the alarm, start going to sleep a few minutes earlier (say 5 or 10, depending on how easy it is to snooze) until you're again waking with alarm. Repeat.

This is just a suggestion and not a fast/instant one at that. I haven't tried to lengthen my sleep hours this way, and I have no idea if this would work for you or anybody else.

Best of luck.

[lars4life]

I must be a sleep junkie. I go to sleep as soon as my head hits the pillow. I only wake up once or twice during the
night. I sometimes take Ambien, sometimes take melatonin. Most of the time I take nothing. I used to wake
up every hour or more, pre XPAP. Now on therapy, I'm on cloud nine!
Not bragging, but truly sincere, I thank God for allowing me to find a cure to my sleep apnea.

[Jay Aitchsee]

kteague,
I really think PLMD is the culprit in my case. Unfortunately, IMO, its a little harder to treat than Apnea. I've gone thru the list of meds usually prescribed for the condition, clonapan, requip, mirapax, gabapenten, et. al., forgive if the list isn't complete and the spelling's off. Here's the problem. I didn't give many of those drugs a fair chance. If I started, and didn't see improvement quickly, I'd ditch them. I hate to take drugs, espescially those that I perceive no benefit from. Some of those drugs may well of worked, but since I wasn't CPAP compliant, I didn't know it. Hence, my advice to Spirit to take care of the Apnea first so it can be ruled out. My experience has been that if you can not prove your apnea is under control, sleep doctors are loathe to look at anything else, and even if you can prove your apnea is under control, some won't or can't (pulmonologist), look at anything else. That's why I think many of us need more than one doctor. Hopefully, getting them to work together.
So now, after a year of full CPAP compliance, I'm ready to start round two of the PLMD treatment. I've got a mini sleep lab set up at home for that purpose, time lapse video cam, etc. I've got back to back appointments with my doctors next month and I'm ready to beat this thing. (how's that for positive thinking).
I take it from your post, that you have a special interest in PLMD. I suspect it may play a part in Spirit's problems, too. But He needs to sort that out with the appropriate doctors. If you want to discuss it further, we should really start a new thread.
Or, PM me if you've got some some questions or advice.
Jay