Post
by SamInLasVegas » Sun Feb 06, 2022 12:08 pm
Some updates on this. The past two nights I've eaten a THC gummy before going to bed. Friday night still took me a couple of hours to fall asleep, but I also didn't take the gummy until right before bed. It says on the package it can take one to two hours for the effects to kick in. As every night the past couple of weeks, I don't think I finally fell asleep until closer to 2:00 AM and I woke up around 9:00. I was pretty fatigued yesterday. Last night I took the gummy a little over an hour before I went to bed and for the first time in almost two weeks I slept closer to normal. I think it maybe only took me 20 or 30 minutes to drift off. I still experienced a couple of those minor apneas as I was drifting off as well as my limbs jerking a few times, but it didn't set off my anxiety this time and I think that's why I fell asleep so fast. I did wake up about 4:00 to go the bathroom. It may have taken me about 30 to fall back to sleep and I slept up until 7:00. I do have a little bit of fatigue this morning. That could be from the THC still or just the half hour period my sleep was interrupted, but looking at the Oscar chart this morning it looks much better than the past several days.
I still don't know why I'm having those minor apneas as I'm dozing off. As I said originally, I don't recall ever experiencing that problem until two weeks ago. Adjusting the pressure settings doesn't seem to have helped. In fact, a couple of nights ago when I snorted a bit I hit the button to see the pressure level and I was at 9. I'm beginning to wonder if they are actually nervous tics, me clenching up my throat or something, as opposed to apnea related. That said, a couple of little minor apnea events shouldn't really prevent me from falling asleep. I also suffer from anxiety issues, which as I've gotten older I've gotten better control over, but I think that frustrating experience two weeks ago when this started just set my anxiety into overdrive and I'm starting to hypothesize that may be my primary issue getting to sleep. Every night I've gone to bed I've been very nervous because I know I'm going to lay there for two to three hours suffering to get to sleep and as soon as that first snort hits my heart takes off. Each night that has passed that anxiety level has gotten a little better, but I've still struggled to fall asleep. That's why I decided to try these gummies as a sleep aid. I'm not big having to rely on sleep aids, but if this is largely anxiety that is causing my problem I may need to rely on it for a week or so to "retrain" my brain in a sense to not get nervous or worked up over these handful of apneas as I'm dozing off. I'll have to see how tonight goes and if I have similar result as last night. If I do and I continue to have positive results throughout the week then maybe by the end of the week I go off the THC and see if I sleep like normal. I suppose that could confirm how much of my issue is anxiety related as opposed to OSA related.
As I mentioned earlier, in addition to the apneas I've been experiencing body jerks. I'll start to doze off and my arm will suddenly jerk or my leg will. I know one time last night my whole body jerked as if I was falling. Everyone experiences this from time to time and I have on occasion, but for the past two weeks it's been almost nightly, which again, is why I'm thinking my issue may largely be anxiety related.
At least today I'm feeling a little more hopeful. The past couple of weeks I've been very depressed and having this feeling of despair not knowing why this is happening, when will it end, or will it ever end? It's really awful to go through every day feeling like that. I'm supposed to go on vacation for a week in March to do some hiking and I've been worrying if I'll have to bail out of it. I have another appointment at the sleep clinic tomorrow, so I'll give him the updates. I don't want to get too optimistic, but hopefully having better results last night means I may be rounding the corner on this.
