Fewer arousals without CPAP

[Pugsy]

Every medication comes with baggage

https://www.drugs.com/sfx/zyrtec-side-effects.html
Not known to mess with sleep all that much but definitely can mess with how you feel during the day

https://www.drugs.com/sfx/flonase-side-effects.html
Not known to mess with sleep all that much but it is known to cause a fast heartbeat which might lead to arousals.

We always have to measure risk vs rewards with any medications.

[zonker]

Hey, terrific, never thought of that... I happen to have a little 'cutter' (old jewellery making tool) so it works on pills.

it's very helpful for a clumsy fingered galoot like me.

[zonker]

I’ve used melatonin before without any side effects that I’m aware of, so will try again. I also have a dust mite allergy that I don’t really treat, so I’ve been taking Zyrtec and Flonase at bedtime for the past week or so. I’ve noticed a difference in my allergy symptoms, but no difference in sleep quality.

melatonin dosage can be tricky and seems to vary from person to person. when i first took it, long before i was diagnosed with sleep apnea, i would take like 5 mg. hey, i'm a big guy, right? and more is better, right?

boy was i wrong. learned here that for most folks smaller is better. so i would recommend starting smal and increasing the dosage until you find what is right for you.

good luck!

[blades]

Thanks for the suggestions, everyone! I have been using 3mg of melatonin for the last few nights and have seen definite improvement in my sleep quality. It is still far from ideal, but it seems to be progressively improving, which is very encouraging. I have also not taken the adderall since Friday, which I don't always do over the weekend, anyway. I am going to play around with holding that for a while longer, then experiment with adding it back in once I'm sure it's all out of my system.

[blades]

Question: would this be considered an arousal? Sorry if it seems obvious, still trying to figure out what's what.

[Miss Emerita]

For a really good answer, you'd need a lot of polysomnographic data. Based just on this, to my eye it looks like you simply sighed. Arousal breathing is usually multiple breaths with a jagged, ragged appearance.

I have the suspicion that some of my sighs actually occur as I make a transition from one stage of sleep to a deeper stage. But I won't ever really know, again because there isn't the polysomnographic data to determine that.

[blades]

For a really good answer, you'd need a lot of polysomnographic data. Based just on this, to my eye it looks like you simply sighed. Arousal breathing is usually multiple breaths with a jagged, ragged appearance.

I have the suspicion that some of my sighs actually occur as I make a transition from one stage of sleep to a deeper stage. But I won't ever really know, again because there isn't the polysomnographic data to determine that.

Okay, that's what I figured. Obviously impossible to tell for sure, but just trying to get a general understanding of what I'm looking at. And what about this? The spots that look jagged and ragged seem to correspond to increased leak rate. Is there any significance to that correlation?

[Pugsy]

It wouldn't be impossible for a small leak to disturb your sleep just a little and cause a little arousal.
Leaks don't have to be massive to be annoying.

[Julie]

Frustrating! How will you know if the melatonin worked to counteract the Adderall if you stopped taking that?

[blades]

Frustrating! How will you know if the melatonin worked to counteract the Adderall if you stopped taking that?

I didn’t do it on purpose, I simply don’t take it on weekends with any regularity. But after I realized what I had done, I thought it would also be a good experiment to see if improving sleep helps my daily functioning to the point of not needing to medicate my ADHD. I’ll add it back in, if not, and see what happens (or, hopefully, *doesn’t* happen) to my sleep!

Welcome to my world of ADHD!