Rare good night before treatment

Over the past few years, my apnea symptoms became extremely pervasive. I never had a good or restorative sleep.

There was one exception. About a week before my diagnostic sleep study, I had a root canal. I had a very short night of sleep, but it was the best I ever felt in years. And after 1 1/2 months of using a CPAP I'm better but I've only come close to what I consider successfully treated a few nights. That's another story and I'm seeing my sleep doctor this Monday to discuss this.

I'm curious as to why I had a good night sleep that one time. I can think of 4 things different that may have mattered
1) After the local had worn off, the pain was pretty intense. I took two vicodins at about 5:30. When they wore off, I took 1 vicodin before I tried to go to sleep at about 11:00 and that was the last.
2) I only really fell asleep at about 12:30-1:00 waking up at 5:00 am. Unfortunately that's only about an 1 less than I normally have been getting for several years.
3) I was given a few small pills at the end of my root canal for "soreness". I imagine that "soreness" could mean irritation and/or swelling.
4) I had an abnormal amount of caffeine that day for various reasons.

Does vicodin affect your breathing in anyway that might have explained this uniquely good night? Could the pills for soreness opened my airways (I have horrible allergies at times)?

I could have been high, but I never got high when I initially took the vicodins and the buzz would have had to last all of the next day.

I had energy and more clarity than normal. I actually didn't know what to do with myself.

Is it possible that you were medicated and physically relaxed enough that you didn't awaken as you normally would when an apnea event occurred?

gasp wrote:Is it possible that you were medicated and physically relaxed enough that you didn't awaken as you normally would when an apnea event occurred?

I really wouldn't know. I've never had recollection of waking from any of my apnea events. The only exception was one night where I was actually suffocating at the moment of waking. This was not one or two deep makeup breathes but actually panicked like I was drowning type of suffocating.

For me, I woke up frequently thinking I just had to go to the restroom, or reposition my pillows or covers. I woke up frequently. I now know the awakenings coincide with an event. My body woke up so that I would breathe. Yes, many times the awakenings would result in a gasp - I believe those times were when the event lasted longer versus shorter.

Does this sound familiar for you as well?

Maybe you get most of your apnea events in NREM and with the pain pills you were able to achieve REM, thus no (or less) apnea events? Does your PSG mention whether your events were mostly in REM or nREM?

gasp wrote:For me, I woke up frequently thinking I just had to go to the restroom, or reposition my pillows or covers. I woke up frequently. I now know the awakenings coincide with an event. My body woke up so that I would breathe. Yes, many times the awakenings would result in a gasp - I believe those times were when the event lasted longer versus shorter.

Does this sound familiar for you as well?

I don't doubt I had such events. I just don't recall them.

If I'm awaken because the covers are off and its very chilly out or something dropped with a thud, I will do like you described and readjust positions. I will recall those events. But if there's nothing distinct about the event, I don't recall it.

I did wake to go to the bathroom. But even then, more often than not don't recall those events. When things were getting bad, I could tell if I was going to have a bad day right away. I live alone and as a required sleep ritual, all lights go out. I would wake to 2-3 lights turned on. Or I would recall one trip to the bathroom when I actually made 3 than night.

BTW, the only thing I found about vicodin is that it might "depress the brain's sleep center". I'll assume what that means and say it does affect sleeping, but is sounds like it would be in an adverse way for a apnea sufferer if anything.

echo wrote:Maybe you get most of your apnea events in NREM and with the pain pills you were able to achieve REM, thus no (or less) apnea events? Does your PSG mention whether your events were mostly in REM or nREM?

I'll have to find out. My sleep doctor is not as forthcoming as I feel he should be. In fact, I decided short term I would stay with him while I establish a routine with the CPAP treatment but will probably look elsewhere in a few months.