Blends With Savanna Grasses

Both Rachel and I have noticed how I've been unable to get through the day without a nap. We'd also noticed that, even after 10 hours in bed, I was essentially exhausted upon waking up in the morning. What gives? This isn't normal, is it?

Well, a night at the local Sleep Study Clinic revealed that I was indeed having a hard time getting any rest, despite the amount of sleep I was getting. The testing showed that I experienced an average of 30-40 apneas per hour and 5-8 restless leg motions per hour. The clinician said it was a wonder I was able to get up in the morning, since a night's worth of sleep only brought me about 3 hours of rest compared to a normal person.

This might also explain why I had such long and difficult recoveries from both my pacemaker surgery and from the last couple colds & infections I got. My body had always given me stellar recovery, but I always slept a lot when I needed to recover. It my sleep now doesn't provide true rest, that would explain why I'm not bouncing back the way I used to.

The next step is to investigate my options. The most common remedy is a CPAP, a special machine that forces air in through your nasal passages in such a way that you don't snore or have apneas. However, CPAPs are heavy machines and are not very mobile. That's hardly the best solution for someone who has to travel a lot. So I'm also checking out other alternatives like surgery and oral appliances. None of them sound like fun, but I'm fed up with being tired all the time. Unless the surgery has a low success rate, I'm leaning in that direction.

Labels: Experiences