jorjen Posted July 3, 2017 Author Share Posted July 3, 2017 10 hours ago, sunburnwilly said: I have been told I snore and stop breathing on occasion but I haven't noticed . We are not generally aware I do not believe. My wife notices it at times and tells me about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
HDBRbuilder Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 If you stop breathing then that is what sleep apnea is. Snoring is an INDICATOR, especially so for SEVERE snoring...but the cessation of breathing and then starting up breathing again is true sleep apnea. It is the cessation of breathing which produces all the sleep apnea issues...lack of blood oxygenation which adversely affects both circulatory and brain functions. Sleep is when the body repairs itself, ESPECIALLY DURING REM SLEEP! If there is dysfunction with oxygenation of the blood, then the repairs don't get made...plain and simple. One indicator of sleep apnea is not dreaming anymore. For people who have "always had" vivid dreams, which often would wake them up, but that stops occurring...there is already some kind of problem. Dreaming occurs during REM sleep...the DEEP sleep...and is often considered a key to good brain function health. If the vivid dreams are gone, and you cannot remember that you were dreaming anymore, there is likely an issue that needs to be addressed...if that is combined with an onset of HEAVY snoring...now you have two factors that figure into the mix and the arrows begin to point in the direction of sleep apnea....if you add drifting off to sleep during the day for no apparent reason along with being in a haze in the mornings when you formerly were not...Sleep apnea is most likely the issue. Time for the sleep study! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 15 hours ago, wstrickland1 said: Looks cool but I just love the trueblue gel mask. I got used to that style day one and now it's just like my blankey or something lol That's the one I used for ten years, I had at least ten of them. That is the one I just abandoned to use the Whisp. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
holtrp Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 It is tough to explain, but now that I have had my CPAP for awhile and have only not used it a handful of times, I totally recognize that I am not sleeping though the night and waking up 50 times per night. It is amazing how you 'get used' to sleep apnea and even with a severe case of it you don't realize that you are stopping breathing and waking yourself up 50 times per night. Sleep study is pretty straight forward. You go to a clinic to spend the night. They put a bunch of wires on you to monitor you while you sleep. My sleep study lasted 2 hours. Guy came into my room and told me I had 'woke up' something like 35 times. We put on a mask with a low level air pressure. Went back to sleep, tough to get used to the mask. Woke up the next morning and felt like I had slept for days, fully rested. My CPAP came with a modem. Phillips Dreamstation. It sends data back to my doctor and they monitor my usage. They ended up cranking up the air pressure over the first couple weeks (all done remotely by the clinic), but I think this feature is also used by the insurance company to make sure you are using it at least 4 hours per night otherwise they don't pay for it. I honestly can't recommend this treatment enough. If you know you snore or are told you stop breathing when you sleep, make it a priority to get treatment. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wvu80 Posted July 3, 2017 Share Posted July 3, 2017 3 hours ago, holtrp said: I honestly can't recommend this treatment enough. If you know you snore or are told you stop breathing when you sleep, make it a priority to get treatment. My thinking is, if it saves your life one time, it was probably worth it. 1 Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garyrc Posted July 4, 2017 Share Posted July 4, 2017 The video they ran at the Sleep Center indicated that, in some cases, breathing does not necessarily stop, but your brain wakes you up before the collapse of membranes in the throat, etc., etc. stop your breathing. The tech showed me blips on the chart that she said was my brain telling me, "Wake up, Gary! Wake up, Gary!" To the degree that works, good. But completely stopping just once, and not starting up again, is enough to kill you, as wvu80 implies. If you are on Medicare, they will pay 80%, and if you have a good supplementary to Medicare insurance play, they may pay the other 20%. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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