Semi OT - Trying to Fix Fragmentation

[Jay Aitchsee]

Thank you for the time and energy you have expended in trying to be helpful to me and others.

You're welcome, I'll try to stop being a nag and let you get on with your experiment

And speaking of that, a while back when I was have some issues with waking and fragmentation, I found getting up, doing some small thing for a few minutes, and going back to bed exactly as if I were going to bed for the first time that evening, to be very helpful in producing a 2nd sleep that was restful. After some time, my sleep became less disturbed and I no longer fully do this, but if I have to get up for a bathroom break, I am careful to follow the routine in going back to bed.

BTW, if you want to explore doing video, see the IR link in my signature. If you have a laptop with a webcam program that does time lapse and a old cheap webcam, you're in business.

I wish you great success with your experiment,
Jay

[JDS74]

Here is the next report.
Last night the wake up came 2 hours and 20 minutes after bed time. AHI for that period was 2.1
Stayed up the usual hour, did the Encore thing, watched a cooking lesson on making Chicken Marsala and Chicken Pillars taught by Chef Briwa of the Culinary Institute - yummy stuff, and then went back to bed.

AHI for the whole night was 5.9,which is very good for me. First 30 minutes into second sleep, almost no events
Felt a little groggy when I first got up but very good now.
I'm beginning to think there may be some eating component to all of this. So, a food journal is added to the experimental data collection..

More later.

Thanks to everybody for their comments and concerns.

[Java]

I have the exact same sleep awakening pattern. Have you found any new information with your sleep experiments? Like what might help or what might cause it?

[kteague]

Was your last sleep study done with or without CPAP?

Even with a reasonable AHI, and even with a nearly negligible number of limb movements, if just one of each per hour causes you to wake up, that's a lot of disruptions to sleep. For me, I don't mind the wakings if there is a chunk of time in between wakings where I felt I slept deeply, and if I can fall back asleep pretty quickly. My sleep is most frustrating when the night is light restless sleep punctuated by frequent wakings. That describes my sleep when my legs are acting up. If you can get to a point where the time between the wakings is significant and it feels like quality sleep, I wouldn't worry too much about a few wakeups. Of course we all want to attain our personal best. Let us know how your experiment progresses.

[JDS74]

Update on what is happening.

My neurologist, who is following my RLS/PLMD treatment, prescribed 100 Gabapentin to see if that would help and it does.
The number of wakes came down some.

What seems to have been the most effective is a combination of:
1) Gabapentin 100 3X a day.
2) Increasing my supplemental O2 to 4 Lpm.
3) Increasing my walking exercise program to 5,000 step of active walking plus an additional 10,000 steps of non-exercise walking. That translates to about 30 miles per week.
4) Trying to control my sleep hygiene to have a more regular bed time.

All that has moved the wake rate down to less than one per hour and the AHI closer to the magic number for me of 5. Keep in mind, that for me, the majority of the AHI number is Hypopneas. Because of my complex sleep apnea, I am restricted to what I can do to raise the min EPAP value on my ASV machine which would be the usual way of dealing with hypopneas.