Sharing a possible solution to sleeping on your back

Well here is a possible solution .http://www.tennisballtshirt.com/Stop_Sn ... _Cure.html

Racprops,

I admire your perseverance.

I'm having a little difficulty visualizing the pillow positions.

Can you post a photo of it.

Thanks

calusa wrote:What are "blocking pillows"?

I use a bunch of pillows, front and back to keep myself from rolling over onto my back. So I call them blocking pillows, as they block my turning.

Rich

Woody wrote:Well here is a possible solution .http://www.tennisballtshirt.com/Stop_Sn ... _Cure.html

OUCH I bet turning over onto a ball in my back would wake me...which is as bad as getting apneas, I NEED a good 3/4 hours of real sleep other wise I am a Zombie the next day and apneas seem to cause arousal's which spoil my sleep even if I don't fully wake up or remember them.

Rich

JimP wrote:Racprops,

I admire your perseverance.

I'm having a little difficulty visualizing the pillow positions.

Can you post a photo of it.

Thanks

I will tomorrow. This was a wake up after three hours of sleep. With a AHI of .31, one little Hypopnea....

Rich

Rich,

I sleep on my back and don't move at all throughout the entire night.

Your solutions have got me thinking about additional changes that I can initiate as my AHI has recently been creeping up to the four and five area.

If you have the time to keep us up to date with your therapy, I read your posts with interest.

Thanks,
TheWino

OK Little update on my sleep.

As with almost all things I do, after a couple of good nights, I seem to get used to the change and begin defeating it.

This time it is the folded blanket helping relieve the pressure on my shoulder and hip.

After a couple of nights of good sleep seasons, with no shoulder pain or hip pain, I started having pain again.

So I threw in the towel…really I added a small towel to add a little more lift… will have to see how it works out.

I think I will find this will work, as I have relieved a lot of the pressure on my arm and hip so I should be able to get used to this and stop hurting in time.

Rich

OK Here are the pictures of my held in place pillow blockers.

First I fold the sheet like this:



Then stack the two back blocking pillows:



Then fold the sheet over the pillows and lay it down:



See:



Then when I go to bed I add a second sheet, like this:



Then add my front blocking pillow:



Then fold the sheet back over so it too is holding the pillow and when I lay on it I cannot push it aside either:



Next is my body lifting folded blanket that lucky matches my body from above my hip to below my arm.



Then there is my movable arm pillow and my leg pillow:



This is my night vision camera, tripod and 9 hour recording VHS machine.



My bed side chest with my PR 960 in the top drawer, I have a light switch, my electric blanket control, a stereo system, a digital clock, the VCR's remote control, my PWM Fan speed control and a magnetic flashlight for low light to save the night vision camera's electronics.



By using the whole drawer I can turn the unit to remove the tank



And then store the hose and mask inside during the day.



Thus I lay on the two sheets holding the pillows that are keeping me from moving them apart and this helps preventing getting flat on my back and having high AHIs..

I was able to watch myself work the pillows apart and get on my back with a Sony Night Vision capable Camcorder.

Once I could see how I was defeating my blocking pillows I started looking for a way to prevent it.

And I was then able to see that it worked.

Rich

OK I have fixed my sleeping to the point that I can get ZERO AHIs and sleep for 3 to 4 hours at least one sleep season per night, so I am now seemly getting the deep rest sleep I seemly need. And my days are getting fair.

And thanks to my body rising folded blanket I can do these sleep seasons on my side and so far NOT wake up in major pain in my hip or shoulder.

So now the only things that seem off are my breathing rate and why is the machine raising the pressure a lot??

I am having NO apneas..ZERO, ZIP, NOTHING..so what is the machine reacting to???

And why is my breathing rate running so fast…my oximeter has not shown any major drop in my O2 …yet my breathing rate seems high and can drop down from time to time…

Are these things a problem??


Here is my Sleepyhead readout:

racprops wrote:Here is my Sleepyhead readout:

your picture is too small to be able to see anything.

there's some idiot on the forum that suggests shrinking screenshots, that's very bad advice. don't do it, because nobody can read any data from the screenshot.

also, turn off the calendar by hitting ^ by the date, it obscures data on the left.

Hows this?

Very elaborate system.
To simplify, just get a highway patrol spike strip to keep you off your back and cut a groove in your mattress for your arm.
No more shoulder pain and no more back sleeping.

racprops wrote:Hows this?

better, but the calendar still obscures potentially valuable detal data below it. you can redo the screenshot and edit your previous post

it would work better if you'd use the built in screenshot facility, (f12 or view/takescreenshot)

bwexler wrote:Very elaborate system.
To simplify, just get a highway patrol spike strip to keep you off your back

I just use a waterbed doesn't mix with spike strips,....

bwexler wrote:Very elaborate system.
To simplify, just get a highway patrol spike strip to keep you off your back and cut a groove in your mattress for your arm.
No more shoulder pain and no more back sleeping.

A silly reply but I will answer nicely...

As I understand it one of the main problems with sleep apnea is how we do not get a good nights sleep, our apnea causes arousal's, where instead of sleep a solid deep sleep we are waken up mainly partly to restart breathing,,and they say the\is also causes a lot of stress and stress hormones which cause all kinds of damage...(in my case there is the claim this could have caused my heart damage and my quad bypass...) so arousal's are bad..

NOW what do you think your sleep would be like turning over onto a tennis ball or spicks be like?? I think it would be just as bad as sleep apneas, lots of arousal's as you respond to the balls of spikes...

My silly system lets me get my much needed sleep, as even if I turn I only hit soft pillows..so I get no arousal's.

I posted my thread to share my findings with others who may have the same problems and how I figured out a possible way to help them.

It seems to be working for me, for the whole month of Dec. for the past 12 days my AHIs have been very low, mostly ZEROS, with only a couple of times with a low under 1 AHI and only two days with a over 1 AHI and each time I had got sloppy and found way onto my back...

Rich