Sleep Apnea hath murdered sleep. Review on Dealing with Sleep Apnea

The Death of Sleep Sleep Apnea has had a very disturbing effect on my life. It was painful, and nearly wrecked my career, my health, my family and my peace of mind. Apnea is a robber, a thief and a killer. Apnea will make you feel constantly foggy, adrift, awreck and asleep, because that is what you will wish for. Apnea is a condition where there is a lot of extra tissue in the neck and nose or breathing passages. It causes a pretty severe condition restricting breathing during sleep; you snore all the time – deep and loud. The problem is that your body is not really designed to exist without oxygen, and if you go without it for long stretches of time – you begin to kill brain cells and cause yourself all kinds of trouble.

How and Why

I had broken my nose playing Football(American) during high school, and it was never fixed. It remains broken to this day. As I gained some weight over the years, a lot of adipose tissue built up in my neck and throat. The combination of these two conditions built into a deadly teamwork. The snoring is how the body is designed to wake you up, to stir the body from its lethargic state as the breathing has completely stopped and been cut off. The snoring in my case kept my family awake, and sometimes caused disturbances in meetings at work, as you can well imagine. As you sleep, the body stops breathing as the tissue in the throat cuts off the airflow, then the body snores to start the process back up, awaken you and get you breathing again. It is a simple matter, but an unfortunate need. The results are harsh. REM – not just a rock band As your body is waking itself up all night, so that you can get your breathing going, you are never able to enter into REM(Rapid Eye Movement) sleep. This is the deepest phase of sleep, the phase in which your body resets its various registers, a great deal of healing takes place there, and your dreams. As a result of never really entering into that level of sleep, your body has a difficult time healing itself, you stay sick all the time. You are tired all the time, and never feel rested. You lose a certain mental edge and acuity as you are always sleepy and at a loss. The fatigue is tremendous. As a result of never dreaming and moving deep into sleep a certain level of creativity fades into the smoke of tired. I began drifting off all day. I would fall asleep at work, as I was never rested after coming off of another horrible night. I would fall asleep at my desk, in meetings, riding shuttle buses and even on the phone a few times. Nothing is more disturbing than hearing the person on the other end of the line begin to snore, I think I angered a number of friends and colleagues.

WAKE UP DADDY!

I could not stay awake in a movie theater, or watching TV – there is no telling how many movies I missed out on over the years. I would see certain parts, and then drift off to sleep during other parts. It was harrowing and scary for my kids. My head would fall back on the couch, and then I would stop breathing. My daughter Allie woke me up a couple of times, terrified. I started drifting off to sleep while driving. I was in at least 4 I started drifting off to sleep while driving. I was in at least 4 or 5 very minor fender benders, falling asleep while waiting for a light to change, or while stuck in traffic. They were almost always at under ten miles per hour…. but a few times I fell asleep while driving at high speed on the interstate. It is a point of some supernatural compassion that I am still alive. They say God watches out for drunks, children and those with Sleep Apnea. Glamis hath murdered his sleep study I went to my doctor, who tried several treatments and tests – none of which rendered any results at all. They proved that my blood was okay(if lacking oxygenation), and so were my hormones. I was sent to a pulmonary doctor for a sleep study. I went to Saint Francis Hospital in Broken Arrow, Oklahoma. They took some blood, and then put a tremendous series of monitors and leads on me. They were checking me for sleep levels, oxygen levels and my heart. The truth is that my brain was starved for oxygen. During the first several hours of the test, I woke myself up over 150 times with snores, never entering REM, never really resting and turning in fits and starts. That is when they woke me up, put a mask on me and began to feed oxygen into my breath-starved body. I awoke the next morning as refreshed as I could remember. It has been years since I had felt that good, and I had a whole new outlook on life. I was prescribed a CPAP machine, and oxygen. This is a machine that blows air through a hose, into a mask that I wear on my face, held fast with straps and headgear. I also plug an oxygen tube from a machine that filters oxygen out of the air, and feeds it into the air passage. This machine blows with pressure, which opens my nose and throat and allows me to breath. This was a godsend for me. The alternative treatment is surgery, and I may pursue that someday, but if I can keep those butchers away from me with their steely knives, I will use my machine. I have to admit, it’s getting better… I am alert now, don’t ever fall asleep at work, and I have seen all of every movie that I have gone to see in the last years. I have lost weight, my driving is improved and my general disposition is much improved. The sleep study was a dream for me. I could not have known how bad it had gotten unless I could compare to the improved condition. Sleep Apnea can kill if your brain is deprived for enough time. And if the oxygen doesn’t kill you, the car wrecks will. Get it checked out, the sleeping pills won’t help, nothing will until you get your passages cleared. There is great hope, there is rest.