suicidally tired

[RandyJ]

zoocrewphoto & robysue,

I don't deny the existence of DSPS, I only posited that the 4:30 bedtime should not be summarily discounted. The OP could have been misdiagnosed with DSPS in the past due to poor sleep hygiene or other reasons.

I never approach problem solving by discarding variables, even if my first thought may be that they are not important.

[Rosiemoto]

Rosiemoto,

Your leaks are very problematic and to my eyes, those wave forms are full of breathing patterns that look a lot like wake breathing or transitional breathing. How much actual sleep do you think you got on these days? And you say you have the following known sleep problems:

I have the following sleep problems:

Obstructive Apnea
Complex Apnea
Delayed Sleep Phase Syndrome normal bedtime is 4:30 A.M. wake at 4 p.m. local
Not going into Delta Wave Sleep
Very sensitive to any light
Light sleeper require earplugs
>You say that you've got Complex Apnea (CompSA) as well as OSA. So I assume that central apneas have >shown up in significant numbers on at least one of your previous sleep studies.
I’ve never been diagnosed with Complex. I mis-spoke. I thought I did from looking at the data. But that is only a guess, I shouldn’t have put that down without getting a doctor to diagnose it. I do have DSPS and that was diagnosed by the leading authority on the planet at OHSU.
>But you also report an average wake time of around 4:00pm. That means you are reporting an 11.5 >"Time in bed (TIB)" window, and this lengthy TIB is potentially a real issue: Are you really lying in bed >for most of that time? And how much actual sleep do you estimate you get during the 11.5 hours >between bedtime and wake time?
My Doctor at OHSU told me, “don’t think that 11 to 12 hours of sleep is too much for you”. Jonathan Emens is his name, he is the disciple of Lewy and Sack who pioneered lightbox therapy.
>In other words, it may be that you are working too hard too increase your total sleep time (TST) and >not enough on increasing your sleep efficiency. Note that sleep efficiency = (TST/TIB)*100%, and many >people will not feel particularly rested unless their sleep efficiency is up around 85-90%.

I am familiar with these concepts but have no idea how to get better sleep except to change the machine, change the settings on my current machine, and change the mask. Are there any settings I have listed on my Respironics System One that might be helpful to change?

>You are a light sleeper sensitive to both noise and light and you sleep primarily in the daytime. You >use earplugs to block the ambient noise in your sleeping environment. What do you do about the light >since you sleep during the daytime?

I am in a very dark room. So I don’t need an eye mask. I put a huge tarp up to cut out almost 100% of the light from the door.

> And given the size of your leaks, do they frequently wake you up?

No

>Or do you tend to sleep through them?

Yes I sleep through all of this stuff going on. No memory of it unless I wake up in a panic attack.
> And what (if anything) have you done to try to address the leak problems?
I’ve changed masks but it only made it worse. I put a post on the cpaptalk site earlier today asking for suggestions from those users who like the Comfort Lite 2 and if they ever found something better. I can only tolerate nasal pillow interfaces. Full face mask is not for me with 18cm intake pressure I get this huge facial movement when inhaling on a FFM.

Finally, you say the sleep studies all show that you don't get much Delta (slow wave sleep or deep NREM sleep). Have you considered getting a zeo to get at least a crude estimate on how much delta sleep you are getting in your own bed on a regular basis?
No because the zeo goes in the same place my comfort lite 2 mask goes (on the forehead) and finances are tough right now.

[zoocrewphoto]

I don't deny the existence of DSPS, I only posited that the 4:30 bedtime should not be summarily discounted. The OP could have been misdiagnosed with DSPS in the past due to poor sleep hygiene or other reasons.

DSPS doesn't need a doctor's diagnosis. Some people get it confused with insomnia since we can't sleep at a time when most people sleep. People with DSPS do sleep well, just at a different time. OKay, I do have sleep apnea, but I can be unconscious for 8 hours easily if they are the hours that work for me. Somebody with DSPS knows they sleep better at different hours. For example, my best sleep is after 8am. If I could only sleep 4 hours per night, but could choose which 4, I would choose 9am to 1pm. I typically go to sleep between 4 and 6am, and I sleep until 1pm on work days, and later on non-work days. Interruptions during the first few hours are no big deal. A trip to the bathroom, whatever. But when the doorbell rings and the dogs bark at 11am. Dang, that is prime time sleep being ruined.


DSPS is NOT about what time we go to sleep. It is about what time of sleep works well. I have done 3 months at a time of "normal" sleeping hours. 8 hours a night, unconscious. Ideal for many people. And I felt like crap. I would much rather get 4 hours at my time, than 8 hours at "normal" time.

I assure you that sleep hygiene does not cure DSPS, and it is not insomnia. It is completely different. People may assume it is insomnia at first, but it is more likely for a doctor to diagnose insomnia than DSPS, not the other way around. Many doctors won't even accept DSPS as real. They just push sleep hygiene and medication.

[robysue]

You say that you've got Complex Apnea (CompSA) as well as OSA. So I assume that central apneas have shown up in significant numbers on at least one of your previous sleep studies.

I’ve never been diagnosed with Complex. I mis-spoke. I thought I did from looking at the data. But that is only a guess, I shouldn’t have put that down without getting a doctor to diagnose it. I do have DSPS and that was diagnosed by the leading authority on the planet at OHSU.

Ok---The questions are: Do you have copies of any of your sleep studies? And do they show significant numbers of centrals?

There are several reasons why this is important. Some folks have CSA right from the start; others develop problems with centrals that emerge with the start of PAP therapy (CompSA). And then there's also this fact to consider: When people are "dozing"---going back and forth between Stage1 sleep and WAKE, centrals are not uncommon and, to a certain extent, are regarded as "normal" and are not scored on a sleep test. They can be regarded as problematic and in need of treatment if the number of the is do excessive that the sleep doc believes they are leading to problems with getting to sleep. So if you are dozing rather than sleeping during the centrals are most evident, they may resolve with time. But they may not. And if they don't resolve, then you may need to be switched to a different, much more expensive machine. If I were in your shoes, I'd certainly be asking the sleep doc about rather large number of centrals on the Encore reports and what the strategy is: How long do we wait to see if they'll resolve and what do we do if they don't?

But you also report an average wake time of around 4:00pm. That means you are reporting an 11.5 "Time in bed (TIB)" window, and this lengthy TIB is potentially a real issue: Are you really lying in bed for most of that time? And how much actual sleep do you estimate you get during the 11.5 hours between bedtime and wake time?

My Doctor at OHSU told me, “don’t think that 11 to 12 hours of sleep is too much for you”. Jonathan Emens is his name, he is the disciple of Lewy and Sack who pioneered lightbox therapy.

Whether 11-12 hours of sleep is "too much" or not is NOT what's behind my question. My question is this:

How much time do you think you are really ASLEEP during that 11 or 12 hour "Time in Bed" window? And how much time are you AWAKE lying in bed---trying to get to sleep or trying to get back to sleep or trying to decide whether to just get up? And how much time are you so lightly dozing that you think you are awake or that you think you might as well be awake?

And I want to know that in order to compute your sleep efficiency. Because I strongly suspect that you are lying in bed attempting to get 12 hours of sold, continuous sleep and in reality you are getting very frustrated by the fact that you are only getting 8-10 hours (or less) of highly fractured sleep during that 12 hour time in bed period.

So to get you started:

How long does it take you to fall asleep once you do go to bed?

How many times do you remember waking up during your TIB window?

When you wake up, how long does it take you to get back to sleep?

How long do you lie in bed awake before you choose to get up at 4:00PM?

In other words, it may be that you are working too hard too increase your total sleep time (TST) and not enough on increasing your sleep efficiency. Note that sleep efficiency = (TST/TIB)*100%, and many people will not feel particularly rested unless their sleep efficiency is up around 85-90%.

I am familiar with these concepts but have no idea how to get better sleep except to change the machine, change the settings on my current machine, and change the mask. Are there any settings I have listed on my Respironics System One that might be helpful to change? (emphasis added)

My humble opinion is that you're chasing your tail here: You're expecting some magic combination of machine settings to fix all your sleep problems. But to quote DeltaDave: CPAP does not fix bad sleep.

CPAP is designed to do one thing: Splint your airway open and make it much harder for the airway to collapse. And CPAP does an excellent job of doing that once the pressure is sufficiently high. And if the only problem with a person's sleep is untreated OSA, then once the person has learned how to sleep with their CPAP, their sleep will improve.

But if a person has multiple serious sleep problems in addition to the untreated OSA, the CPAP will fix the OSA, but the sleep will remain bad due to all the other problems.

And in your case, I think you need to work on fixing the leaks (more about this in a different post) and then give the current machine and settings some time so that we know if the CPAP is doing its job. And at the same time, you need to work on other issues that are adversely affecting your sleep. In particular you need to work on:

All those CAs
You need to work with your sleep doc on this one. You've got enough CAs on those Encore reports to warrant bringing them up to the doc. But dial winging on Sysyem One BiPAP isn't likely to do much for them---if they're a real problem. And if they're not a real problem, they'll resolve in time regardless of whether you change the settings or not.

Other potential medical problems
Excessive fatigue is a symptom of many medical problems. How long has it been since you've had a routine physical exam with blood work? Getting your thyroid, iron, vitamin D, and vitamin B levels checked seems reasonable. Excessive sleep and excessive sleepiness are also signs of major depression, so you may want to be screened for that as well. If you're a guy, low testosterone may need to be looked at. If you're a gal, having your hormones checked to see if you are menopausal might be useful. If other medical problems turn up, treating them may improve your sleep. And if you are on any medications, it's worth talking to the prescriber or your pharmacist about whether the meds may be adversely affecting your sleep.

Excessive time in bed
In my humble opinion, this is an issue if you are getting less than 10 hours of actual SLEEP in your 11.5-12 hour sleep window. Lying in bed stressing out about how bad things are does nothing to encourage high quality sleep. And lying in bed not sleeping leads to feeling exhausted during the times you want to be awake and functional.

Stress
You can't change stress coming from major events in your life---such as the divorce. But stress strongly affects the quality of one's sleep, but there are good and bad ways of coping with stress. There are all kinds of things that different people find useful for coping with excessive stress when Life's problems are large, significant, and largely out of your direct control in the sense of fixing them. But exercise and conscious relaxation techniques are commonly useful. So---how much exercise do you get on a weekly basis? How often do you take some time to do something you genuinely enjoy? And how do you try to relax when you're keyed up and you just can't stop worrying about all the big things that are not going well in your life?

Good sleep hygiene
As zoocrewphoto points out good sleep hygiene is not going to "cure" your DSP. But that's not really the point behind good sleep hygiene, The point behind good sleep hygiene is improve the quality of your sleep---regardless of when your natural sleep window occurs. So what kinds of things am I talking about?

• Sleep environment. You've taken care of one of the biggies as a daytime sleeper: You've made the room as dark as you can. Have you also tried to make sure the ambient daytime noises are not an issue? And is your bed genuinely comfortable? Is the room sufficiently cool?
• Wake time behavior patterns.
  • How much caffeine do you consume in a 24 hour period? How close to your normal 4:30AM bedtime is your last cup of coffee or last caffeine-rich soft drink? Many people find that to sleep soundly for the whole sleep period they need to cut out all caffeine for 6-12 hours before bedtime. With your 4:30AM bedtime, you may want to limit your consumption of caffeinated beverages to before 8:30PM. You may find that you'll sleep better if you eliminate all caffeine from your diet.
  • Physical activity and exercise. Getting some physical activity or exercise every "day" tends to improve our mood during our normal WAKE hours. It also helps us sleep more soundly and more continuously when we choose to sleep. If you get little or no physical activity on most "days", you might want to start trying to get a walk in every night during those hours you are awake anyway. If you live in a reasonably safe neighborhood, a thirty minute walk between 2:00 and 2:30 AM just might help you sleep better once you go to bed at 4:30AM.
  • Meal times and bed time snacks. When's supper time for you? You want yo make sure that you're not going to bed starving, but you also don't want to go to bed on a super full stomach. And if you have a bedtime snack, what do you typically eat and when do you eat it?
  • Diet. A healthy diet helps sleep. And a diet based on junk food usually doesn't help you sleep any better
• Sleep time behavior patterns
  There are a number of behavior patterns that we do both at bedtime and while in our beds that can affect the quality of our sleep. Here are some of the ones that may be problematic for you.
  • Reserve the bed and the bedroom for sleeping and sex. If you often do wake activities while in your bed, it can teach your body that it is OK to be awake while lying in bed. So move the TV and computer activities out to the living room and eat in the kitchen instead of in the bed.
  • Avoid too much TV or computer time too close to bedtime. Try to avoid using your computer, cell phone, and tv for at least an hour before bedtime. The blue light they emit can destroy melatonin, which makes staying asleep more problematic.
  • Avoid graphic and violent TV shows and video games close to bedtime. Too much fodder for bad dreams and/or night time worries.
  • Bedtime routine. Creating a soothing and relaxing bedtime routine that allows you to fully relax came help improve sleep.
  • Worrying. Worrying about things at bedtime or after going to bed leads to both insomnia and nonrefreshing sleep. Try to bring some sense of closure to your day before it's time to got to bed at 4:30AM so that you don't bring your daytime problems to bed with you.
  • Reaction to wakes during the middle of your time in bed window. What do you do when you find you are awake and you still want to be asleep? Do you immediately look at the clock and start fretting about the time? Do you start worrying about being awake? Or do you turn over and get back to sleep pretty quickly?

[robysue]

DSPS is NOT about what time we go to sleep. It is about what time of sleep works well. I have done 3 months at a time of "normal" sleeping hours. 8 hours a night, unconscious. Ideal for many people. And I felt like crap. I would much rather get 4 hours at my time, than 8 hours at "normal" time.

I assure you that sleep hygiene does not cure DSPS, and it is not insomnia. It is completely different. People may assume it is insomnia at first, but it is more likely for a doctor to diagnose insomnia than DSPS, not the other way around. Many doctors won't even accept DSPS as real. They just push sleep hygiene and medication.

While DSPS and insomnia are not the same thing, it is quite possible for someone to have both DSPS and insomnia. In that case, good sleep hygiene and all the other anti-insomnia rules can help the person with DSPS get higher quality sleep in the time frame that works best for their body.

And given what the OP is describing, I suspect s/he has both DSPS and insomnia as well as a leak problem that needs to be fixed.

My guess is that the DSPS is "severe" in the sense that the OP's sleep phase is significantly different than what is regarded as a "normal", but the DSPS is not causing any problems that we know about. (Although the DSPS may have played a role in the divorce---we just don't know.)

My guess is that the insomnia has set in with the stress from the divorce (adjustment insomnia) and that the insomnia is causing problems for the OP.

In other words, my guess is that before the divorce, the OP was getting "ok" sleep between 4:430 AM and 4:00 PM except for potential problems caused by CPAP therapy being adversely affected by the OP's leaks. And as you point out, as long as the "life schedule" for a person with DSPS can be adjusted to fit the DSPS, the DSPS is not, by itself, a problem. But with the divorce and other stressors, the OP's sleep has deteriorated into "bad sleep" because of adjustment insomnia. But with all those centrals and the leaking that's going on, there's more that needs to be "fixed" than the adjustment insomnia.

[robysue]

Rosiemoto,

You say you are a very light sleeper and yet:

And given the size of your leaks, do they frequently wake you up?

No

Or do you tend to sleep through them?

Yes I sleep through all of this stuff going on. No memory of it unless I wake up in a panic attack.

So leaks don't wake you up, but panic attacks do.

Any idea what kind of things trigger your panic attacks? And anything else wake you up on a regular basis?

And what (if anything) have you done to try to address the leak problems?

I’ve changed masks but it only made it worse. I put a post on the cpaptalk site earlier today asking for suggestions from those users who like the Comfort Lite 2 and if they ever found something better. I can only tolerate nasal pillow interfaces. Full face mask is not for me with 18cm intake pressure I get this huge facial movement when inhaling on a FFM.

The Comfort Lite 2 essentially sits on the top of your head with straps around the top of your head, but nothing on your cheeks like this:

The problem could be that this mask goes around the top of your head and forehead and appears to be a bit top heavy. So perhaps it slides around at night and dislodges the pillows slightly.

Did this mask catch your eye because it doesn't cross or touch your cheeks? If you think you could tolerate something on your cheeks, you might want to try a truly minimalist pillows mask like the Swift FX or Swift LT since they might be a bit more stable because the cheek straps help the headgear stabilize the mask. Pugsy has had good luck with both of them and her pressures do hit the high side. The Opus 360 is quite comfortable and feels more stable than the FX. If having "free hair" was one of the appeals of the Comfort Lite 2, then you might want to consider the new Bella Loops head gear for the Swift FX pillows.

If you suspect that you might be mouth breathing, you may need to consider a chin strap or taping your mouth.

[Sloop]

I'm not sure you can completely remove the 4:30 am bedtime from the equation. Some people who work second shift or mid shift jobs and sleep during daylight hours NEVER get really good sleep due to difficulties in resetting circadian rhythms. I think some people's bodies simply resist sleeping during the day. My grandfather told me that he worked a second shift job for almost 15 years and never adapted completely to sleeping during the day.

One can prefer to go to bed at 4 am, but it doesn't mean the body is going to like it, even if it becomes a regular thing.

I'm not saying this is necessarily the OP's situation, but I don't think it can be summarily discounted.

My thoughts too

[Sloop]

I switched from a morning person to a severe night owl when I was 19 years old.

I am kind of fascinated with your story. Trust me, I am not doubting the veracity of it at all -- but it is simply that I have never heard of dsps before. How abrupt was this switchover at 19 years of age? And was there any life changing events going on?

I guess I am one of the lucky ones in the sleep department. When I was barely out of my teens, I was a submariner in the Navy. I used to be able to sleep laying between two torpedoes close together on the racks, with nothing for padding.
Today, at age 69, I consistently get between 8 1/2 and 9 hours a night -- sometimes that is a total including a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Only if my wife or pets are suffering do I chalk up sleep debt.

I was also amazed when you said something along the order of "don't try to talk me into switching to normal work hours because I prefer the midnight shifts precisely because of my disorder" -- I apologize if I didn't get that quote exactly right, but typing this reply prevents me from seeing the earlier posts. Anyway --I have of course talked to many many people over the years who work swing or 3rd shifts and without fail, everyone of them has desired to get back to normal hours. This may sound stupid -- but have you ever considered the possibility that moving to the east coast would correct this syndrome? Or even an altitude change?

[zoocrewphoto]

Postby Sloop on Mon Sep 03, 2012 7:12 pm

zoocrewphoto wrote:
I switched from a morning person to a severe night owl when I was 19 years old.



I am kind of fascinated with your story. Trust me, I am not doubting the veracity of it at all -- but it is simply that I have never heard of dsps before. How abrupt was this switchover at 19 years of age? And was there any life changing events going on?

I guess I am one of the lucky ones in the sleep department. When I was barely out of my teens, I was a submariner in the Navy. I used to be able to sleep laying between two torpedoes close together on the racks, with nothing for padding.
Today, at age 69, I consistently get between 8 1/2 and 9 hours a night -- sometimes that is a total including a 2 hour nap in the afternoon. Only if my wife or pets are suffering do I chalk up sleep debt.

I was also amazed when you said something along the order of "don't try to talk me into switching to normal work hours because I prefer the midnight shifts precisely because of my disorder" -- I apologize if I didn't get that quote exactly right, but typing this reply prevents me from seeing the earlier posts. Anyway --I have of course talked to many many people over the years who work swing or 3rd shifts and without fail, everyone of them has desired to get back to normal hours. This may sound stupid -- but have you ever considered the possibility that moving to the east coast would correct this syndrome? Or even an altitude change?

You have some good questions (much better than the questions I normally get).

I'm not really sure how my sleep changed so drastically. I grew up a morning person. My mom says that I would go around the house singing at 6am. This sounds very disgusting and annoying, so I can't imagine that I used to be that way. I do remember that Christmas morning was always spent a few hours by myself as I was up too early. My parents figured out quickly that they could occupy me with a puzzle. We had a tradition of one gift on Christmas Eve, so they made sure there was a puzzle there, and I would shake the boxes, pick the puzzle, and have something to do the next morning while I waited.

As a freshman in high school, I had a paper route, and I had no problems with weekend morning delivery. I never needed a snooze alarm. I was up with the first alarm, no problem. IAs a junior, I had a zero hour class that started an hour before normal classes. Again, no problem. I think it started when I was a freshman in college. I know I must have thought I was still normal as I signed up for a class at 7am. I had a bad boss who kept working me long shifts on school days and then gave me the weekends off. The exact opposite of what a college student wants. I don't know if my sleep was internally messed up at that point, or it was just my schedule messing with me. I know I fell asleep during my first calculus exam. I also started with a lot of hard classes, and thought I tried too much.

I suspect my sleep changed in two parts separately. I know, that sounds confusing. But here goes. I think the staying up later and later started first. I couldn't sleep earlier, so I stayed up until I was ready to sleep. I was still getting up early because I had to, and as a young and dumb, invincible young adult, I was able to function and didn't suspect anything wrong. During the summer, I would even work one morning shift a week, no biggie. I would stay up until 3am, go to bed for a couple hours, and then go to work. No problem. One week, my boss (by this time, a different boss who was much better) scheduled me two morning shifts (in a row). She took one look at me the second day and never did that again. I couldn't fake being awake two days straight.

I transferred to the university in 1993 with an AA degree, and technically a junior. For some stupid reason, juniors had last pick of the classes when signing up. So, every class I needed was early morning, and it was a 45 minute bus ride to get there. I was getting up at 5am, and I just couldn't fall asleep before 1am. I learned to sleep on the bus, even when standing up. By then, I was definitely struggling with sleep deprivation. I would frequently forget common words. We all thought it was funny, and I remember a customer telling me that it was a neurological problem that could be serious. I dismissed it. But later, when I quit college, the problem stopped, and I felt better, and I realized it was all related to my lack of sleep.

I turned 18 in 1990, so I am guessing it started somewhere around age 19, but I am not completely sure. I know I was also diagnosed with asthma when I was 19. I had earlier symptoms as a kid that I never reported, but recognized later, looking back. And at 17, I went to the ER and was told I had Reactive Airway Disease, a mild version of asthma. I have no idea if those were related as I never even considered that until today, after reading your questions. I've never looked into my history of being a night owl.

My normal working shift is 2 or 2:30pm to 10:30 or 11pm. I have two earlier shifts per year - Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve. I work in a grocery store, so we close early those days and get very busy. So, they have me come in earlier. Otherwise, I have 23 years seniority, and they give me the shift I want. I have turned down promotions because it would require working earlier. Sure, I would like more money, and I never planned on working in a grocery store so long. But I just can't work an earlier shift on a regular basis. I have done it for 2-4 months at a time when they really needed to me (most recently was probably 10 years ago). I hated it, and I felt like crap every day, even days off. It was only when I returned to my normal schedule that I felt good again. And this was before I had sleep apnea. My job does have good health insurance plan, even for part time work, and that allows me to do my small business (pet photography) as I wish. This means lots of long weekends off. That part is harder on my sleep schedule, but I finally learned how to make it work without getting sick.

I have never considered time a zone change. I'm not sure how to test it without actually doing it. But I suspect it would not be successful. Unlike some people with dsps, or even many normal people, an hour or two doesn't really affect me. You see, my going to bed schedule is somewhat flexible. I typically go to bed between 4 and 6am. But I may go to bed at 3am one day, 5am the next, then 2 days at 4am, a day at 7am, a day at 5 am, etc. I simply go to bed when I feel ready. And then I either get lucky or take the loss based on what time I have to get up. For me, it is less about the number of hours, and more about how many hours during my best sleep time. 4 hours between 9am and 1pm will always be better than 8 hours from midnight to 8am. I am using clock times, but it really isn't about the time on the clock. It's the internal clock, and late morning to early afternoon is my best sleep.

When the time changes twice a year, it's no biggie to me. I have to double check my clocks and watch for a few days, but that's it. I have traveled across time zones, and other than making sure I am arriving at places at the right time, it makes no difference to me. Of course, when I travel, it means I have to go on a more normal schedule, so that is what throws me. Having to sleep in different beds at the wrong time. Energy drinks have really helped the last few years.

Last year, I went on a 19 day trip from Washington to Colorado for a cat show, then to Utah for hiking and sightseeing. 19 days of being a morning person. This was also with untreated sleep apnea. I did it. I was functional. I drank a lot of energy drinks. I had a great time, and I was alert most of the time. I was in bed before midnight most nights, but I spent a lot of time awake, listening to my ipod, playing solitaire, etc. As soon as I got home, I went right back to being a severe night owl. My clock resets as soon as don't have to get up early. And I feel better right away.

I can tell you that I have been "opposite" and "difficult" in many ways. For example, if I get less than 4 hours of sleep, I will be very cold when I get up. It can be 80 degrees, and my teeth will be chattering. I have learned to make a cup of hot chocolate first thing to speed up my recovery. I do not drink coffee or tea. If I can't get a couple hours of sleep, it is easier if I just stay awake. Going to bed for a short time and then getting up makes me feel sick.

At work, all my coworkers wear long sleeves under their work shirt, and often a vest too, even during the summer. I go all year, even winter, with just my short sleeve shirt. I think I wore long sleeves 3 or 4 times last winter. And only for a couple hours. I usually feel quite warm at work. But at home, I feel cold.

Codeine, benadryl, and most medications that cause sleepiness do NOT make me sleepy. The doctors and pharmacists were stunned that I was taking cough medicine with codeine every 4 hours while at work, and I felt fine, other than still coughing. I am also having zero luck with various allergy medications. They don't seem to do a thing for me.


For a long time, I could not eat breakfast right away. It took some real work to find things that worked for me so that I could eat when I was up early as I needed to get my system going. I used to get sick at events because I wouldn't eat for several hours. I eat dinner food for breakfast. For many years, I would buy fried chicken wings for breakfast every day. A few years ago, they changed suppliers, and I hate the fried chicken now. So, I started buying frozen, bbq flavored chicken wings. Every day, I cooked them at home, ate them at work just before starting. They were discontinued last year. I did some experimenting and found that if it wasn't mostly protein, I felt like crap. So, I usually have some form of chicken, depending on price and how much time it takes to fix. I do sometimes eat cereal for dinner when I get home from work

About 15 years ago, I stopped drinking pop for 6 months. I didn't feel any better. I didn't lose weight. I didn't sleep any better or any earlier. I didn't have fewer bathroom trips, fewer headaches, or any of the things that I was told would happen. Instead, I got dehydrated. I don't like much to drink, except pop and the occasional cup of hot chocolate, so I was drinking only water, which I don't like that much. I was drinking less and less until it was obvious I was getting dehydrated. I did change flavors, so I was previously drinking Mountain Dew (very high in caffeine), and I never touched it again. When I started pop again, it as Root Beer for awhile, then Sunkist Orange, and now it is Orange Crush, no caffeine. I still tend to be a little dehydrated, but not like I was during the experiment.

Oh, and I cam sleep with the lights and tv on, no problem. I haven't done a zeo comparison to see how my sleep patterns may be different as I don't intentionally fall asleep with the lights on. But I will wake up with everything on and realize I fell asleep while watching tv. And yes, I am the poster child of bad sleep hygiene. But I never bothered to work on it since my only problem seemed to be not getting enough sleep when I had morning events. Of course, I see now that I was suffering from sleep apnea badly, and that is now mostly corrected. I am still working on using my machine all night every night as some nights, I struggle. But I feel better than I have in years, so it is definitely working.