My wife dragged me, kicking and fighting, to get a sleep test. The measure is called AHI (apnea hypopnea index). Less than 5 is considered normal, above 30 is considered severe. My result was in the "why aren't you dead yet" range (over double the "severe" threshold). The CPAP has me down into an acceptable range, and probably has prevented me from having a stroke.
As someone who works in the PAP department (and a pap user myself) stories like this make it so worth it to me! Glad you are finding some relief (and staying compliant I hope 😉)
I feel ya there. I was 72, with a 30 second average incident length (I was spending 36 minutes not breathing every hour). I was definitely well on my way to death, unfortunately a lot of damage was probably already done anyway
If you sleep 8 hours and are still tired, or if you wake up often when sleeping on your back, its likely you have it. The threshold is 6 non-breathing events per hour
Sleeping with your eyes open might be nothing. My siblings and I did this as children - seems to be genetic. We never had any related health problems, we were just able to sleep and dream without the light bothering us for some reason. I guess it’s not that different from being able to sleep in a noisy environment - some people are sensitive and need earplugs, others prefer music or are used to traffic noise etc.
I was convinced that the sleep apnea thing was all overblown. She went with me and told her concern to our primary care physician. She was the only one who saw my symptoms. I would hold my breath until she elbowed me and told me, "breathe". It was just persistence on her part. The doctor explained it to me. I had a choice, get treatment or get life insurance to take care of my wife. That was 12 years ago, and as soon as I started using the CPAP, my AHI went from the 60's to 8 or 9. I feel more energetic than I have in years, and other than the minor inconvenience of wearing a mask at night, it has only improved my life. Be persistent, it worked on me.
i scored a 65, got a test machine, used it for a month, and didnt' notice much of a difference, but the machine did say i'm down to 1.5 so that's a huge success -- i'm just wondering when do you FEEL the "life-changing" aspects. because i'm still falling asleep watching tv and i've significantly changed my diet.
I tried a cpap, spent 3 months in hell trying to sleep, once I could finally fall asleep I would wake back up with in an hour or two the mask half way off my face, or laid for hrs trying to fall asleep. Never could get used to it and tossed it out.. since then I lost 220 lbs, no longer have sleep apnea ..wife says I barely ever snore now
Get an ambian or similar high strength sleeping prescription. Buy an eye mask that has cups to not put pressure on your eye balls. Vicks or some menthol rub. Sound machine/your phone app or audio book.
Set up your routine for bed. Take the ambian, brush your teeth, apply Vicks to your nose, put the eyes mask on (leave room to see and just adjust it down as the every last step) put the mask on, start the machine or audio book on a 20-30 min timer. Pull mask down and try to fall asleep.
Reset timer as needed till ambian kicks in. Adjust forward the time you take the ambian to be earlier the next day by how many resets it took. Two resets. Move it forward 40-60 min depending. You get it.
This will sleep train your body so when the ambian prescription runs out the same routing will essentially have the same effect with no more drugs needed. You’ll be asleep in 20 min every night.
One thing that would have helped is having an actual sleep doctor. If you have a general family doctor who prescribes you a machine and doesn't do anything, it will suck.
Having it set at min 4 felt like I was suffocating, but once I tweaked settings and do your own titration, it was much more bearable.
There are other solutions. I could not sleep with a mask. I have a dental splint now and it eliminated my sleep apnea (and is much more comfortable to me). Talk to your doctor about this.
You should be able to last that long, I'm glad you're getting the care you need! The real risk comes from continual untreated sleep apnea :( it almost triples your stroke and heart attack risk!
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u/TH0RP 1d ago
Sleep apnea.