A Journey through Apnea Struggles via Class Notes

I noticed something tonight, and I think it's really interesting (of course, it could only be me that finds it interesting, in which case I apologize . I was writing out sort of a timeline to take to my sleep doc tomorrow (as to when I started feeling more tired, had problems concentrating, etc after the mask started giving me problems). I glanced over at my class notes, and realized they made the perfect timeline.

The first few weeks of class, I was doing fairly well. My notes are cognizant, well-written, organized, and in my normal hand-writing. Suddenly, you start seeing doodles. I wasn't really aware of it at the time, but this is when I started getting a little sleepy. I was doodling to try to keep myself awake. My notes were still mostly good, organized, and normal. Then, two weeks later, you start to see something weird. My notes will be good, normal, organized, etc for a bit, and then suddenly they start becoming incoherent. I'm not recording the important stuff the prof is saying, but rather random details. And the sleepier I get, the sloppier my handwriting gets. Soon, in that same note-taking session, you can't read what I'm writing at all. You'll be able to read the first few words of a line, and then my writing slopes downward and becomes completely illegible. Eventually, there are no notes at all because I'm no longer in class. I'm at home, asleep, completely zonked out.

Maybe I'm a huge dork, but I thought it was really cool that my class notes so accurately reflected the timeline of my recent struggles with apnea.

Very interesting analogy, and great that you are that observant.

I found out with myself that I would start out in a fog (from lack of oxygen) in the morning, and throughout the day, as I received more oxygen from normal breathing I felt much better and more energetic by evening. Then I would go to sleep and the cycle would start again.

Since I am on the CPap, I am energetic as soon as I wake up and by bedtime I am tired and can't wait to go to bed, only because I now have the energy to do more during the day. My only complaint is that I am up very early whether it is my day off or not and although I would like to stay up later on the weekends, I can't.

Proof of the affects of poorly or un-treated apnea. Take your notes along to show your Doc.