Sleep apnea...

adam

Anyone here have it?

Last few months I noticed myself waking up quickly right before following a sleep as it felt like I hadn't taken a breath for a few second, quickly getting my breath baking and continuing to doze off... just to do it again.

So I looked up my symptoms and one of the suggestions is sleep apnea. Those symptoms, plus being overweight, I reckon this may be it. I am going to try and get myself in to a doctor before the weekend to see if that's whats up.

In the mean time - anyone going through it or know of someone who is?

notman

I work with a guy who has this. His is in relation to his weight, so if he were to lose a lot of weight, he would likely resolve his problem. I'm not sure if this would relate to you though.
The doctors had him do a sleep study basically, to monitor him while he attempts to sleep at the lab. The result was that he would constantly stop breathing throughout his sleep, which would wake him up... just like your situation. The 'cure/treatment' is that he has to sleep with a mask on... I believe it's a typical oxygen mask.

Good luck with it... and get to the doctor asap. His health declined greatly until he saw the doctor for this, because basically your body can only operate so long without sleep.

Also, he's OK now, but he weighs in at probably 400lbs and is probably only 5'7". Like I said though, he still has to sleep with the mask.

Daz

hey Adam, I'd managed to convince myself that I had apnea about a year ago. I have the potential to snore like a fucking pig at times (much to the mrs. chagrin), experienced that waking yourself up catching your breath thing that you described, never feel rested in the morning, had trouble losing weight blah blah.
I had a sleep study done, but basically it was pretty much inconclusive for me and I never really followed up on it. During the overnight test I just could not sleep at all, lying there in a strange room with wires plugged into every orifice. I'm certain I literally did not go to sleep, they say I did for a short time, and they based their result of negative apnea on that. Quite honestly, I was certain they just didn't have enough data, but I didn't feel like doing it again I suppose.
All moot for me now that i don't sleep at all with the newborn in the room!

Worth asking your doctor about.

bearkub

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The 'cure/treatment' is that he has to sleep with a mask on... I believe it's a typical oxygen mask.


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It is not a regular oxygen mask. it's called a CPAP http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/CPAP. It basically forces you to breathe and it is a cumbersome piece of equipment. The other treatment is a surgery where they remove your adnoids(sp?), part of your soft palette and your uvula.

My roomie had this and had the surgery done. It didn't completely fix it, but it did make it a bit better.

You should find The3DGuy, he works with this kinda stuff.

Wells

It's not all that uncommon for me wake up with what feels like completely deflated lungs and sit there drawing in air painfully.

I hate that shit

Psyk0

My aunt had symptoms of it, she brought some type of monitoring machine home to record sleep patterns. Turns out her condition isnt too serious.

rooster

I also have a colleague who had this, he had the air blowing mask which fixed it short term. A while ago he returned the mask which I guess meant he got over it, I'll ask him about it.

Theres another thing ive heard of which I think I have experienced, called a 'hypnic jerk' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk )
basically a muscle spasm usually just as you're falling asleep, and can snap you out of sleep. very annoying.

ebagg

After I got my first desk job and gained 40 pounds I got that happening to me when I woke up. My ex I lived with also said I snored and shifted around a lot more when I gained the weight, something I didn't have when I was in shape before that. This past summer I hit the gym hard and did a ton of long distance running, and haven't had those symptoms since.

Jay Evans

I like to visit Joe Rogan's site, and it just so happens that one of his recent blog posts deals with sleep apnea and his experiences with it.
http://blog.joerogan.net/

oh and a completely unrelated thing.. check out his Pic of the Day thread in his forum. You'll be gagging over the sheer amount of WTF in there. It may be another thing that will keep you up all night haha.

Emil Mujanovic

[ QUOTE ]
Theres another thing ive heard of which I think I have experienced, called a 'hypnic jerk' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk )
basically a muscle spasm usually just as you're falling asleep, and can snap you out of sleep. very annoying.

[/ QUOTE ]
I get this pretty much every night, just as I'm about to fall asleep for the first time. After that I have no trouble getting to sleep.

Not to derail the thread, I have had this one weird experience where I woke up in the middle of the night but I was still sleeping. Yeah, make sense of that! Almost like I was sleeping with my eyes open and was aware that they were open, only I couldn't move. I was completely paralyzed. I was fully aware of my surroundings and was consciously awake, but just had no control over my body. I was like that for a good 30 seconds to a minute, before I finally managed to wake myself up.
The next night, I purposely tried to replicate that experience just as I was dozing off. Funnily enough, I was successful. It has never happened to me since nor have I tried to replicate it again. It scared the shit out of me when it happened. Aliens?

-caseyjones

snemmy

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
Theres another thing ive heard of which I think I have experienced, called a 'hypnic jerk' ( http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnic_jerk )
basically a muscle spasm usually just as you're falling asleep, and can snap you out of sleep. very annoying.

[/ QUOTE ]
I get this pretty much every night, just as I'm about to fall asleep for the first time. After that I have no trouble getting to sleep.

Not to derail the thread, I have had this one weird experience where I woke up in the middle of the night but I was still sleeping. Yeah, make sense of that! Almost like I was sleeping with my eyes open and was aware that they were open, only I couldn't move. I was completely paralyzed. I was fully aware of my surroundings and was consciously awake, but just had no control over my body. I was like that for a good 30 seconds to a minute, before I finally managed to wake myself up.
The next night, I purposely tried to replicate that experience just as I was dozing off. Funnily enough, I was successful. It has never happened to me since nor have I tried to replicate it again. It scared the shit out of me when it happened. Aliens?

-caseyjones

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sleep paralyisis. happens to me too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

pliang

I haven't had this happened to me just yet and I'm pretty doughy for a 5 foot 10 Asian person...perhaps I should take warning and ward off a few pounds before I get too larded out with work stress.

And I read about a news article which featured the exact same illness and symptoms like this as well.

Gav

I remember the first time I woke up after sleeping on my arms...In my half asleep stupor, I was scared shitless.

snemmy

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I remember the first time I woke up after sleeping on my arms...In my half asleep stupor, I was scared shitless.

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i woke up once with the back of my neck and head completely numb.. now that's scary... 'omg! is my brain numb?!' :0

The3DGuy

I test people for sleep apnea at my work. Wearing the CPAP mask is not nearly as bad as you would think. Most people that wear it fall in love with it and say they can't imagine not wearing it.

Weight loss will probably help you if you are actually overweight, weight is usually the first thing people look when trying to determine a cause for sleep apnea, but there are several things that could cause it. Chances are if a member of your family has it, you have it for good.

Kovac

Sleeping is a crazy thing for me in general. If I have any caffeine in my body or start off by sleeping on my right side I nearly always have nightmares/really vivid dreams. If I sleep straight out on my back I usually get sleep paralysis and have to rock my head to get my body awake.

Annnd to go with the topic... I get absolutely horrible sleep apnea if I drink heavily (vacations, trips to mexico, you get the gist) for numerous days and try to go to bed sober. I'm in plenty good shape so it's really just a matter of going through bad alcohol withdrawals...

oh and I've certainly had my share of 'hypnic jerk'. it happens especially often if I begin to dream before I'm truly asleep. my muscles are still somewhat functioning and will try to copy the motion in the dream.

pior

I hate sleep apnea and paralysis, it's freaky as hell!
Yet if I have sleep apnea I guess that's because of the strong tongue factor - which girls like.

I somehow enjoy the hypnic jerk thing tho. Maybe because of that strange feeling of being at the edge right inbetween two worlds...

adam

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I somehow enjoy the hypnic jerk thing tho. Maybe because of that strange feeling of being at the edge right inbetween two worlds...

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omg, yes! It's such a weird feeling! I'm nearly asleep then BAM! back to reality I go. It really sucks, and it's not like I'm gasping for air or anythig.. just a slight annoyance.

Illusions

[ QUOTE ]
sleep paralyisis. happens to me too.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sleep_paralysis

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I have something similar that happens to me sometimes (about 4-8 times a year)...like sleep paralysis it is also tons of fun. Imagine sleep paralysis...but with hallucinations! Well...no, its not really fun, unless you enjoy being almost completely paralyzed while being forced to observe quite possibly some strange and scary shit happening around you.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hypnagogia

rooster

I asked me workmate- apparently he had big toncils and they took em out, which sorted the problem

rebb

Sleep paralysis ftl /o\. I always find myself freaking out when it happens, and trying to deliberately breathe and move, but it takes a while until something happens, if at all.

pliang

This is one thing that pharmaceuticals can't help you with...

Sage

My girlfriend thinks I have it. I think she is paranoid though. She thinks I have because it I don't sleep enough and for the time she really mentioned it a lot I was sleeping as little as an hour a night or nothing at all for a few days. Also she would notice I would stop breathing for awhile. Well she thought I did anyway. Hmmm if weight is part of the cause of this, then the fact that I'm so under weight is a good thing for a change. Part of the problem with this condition is from what she told me is that you stop breathing in your sleep for long enough to suffer brain damage because of the lack of oxygen to the brain. Trucks drivers get this a lot due to sleep deprivation and according to her it raises the risk of heart attack as well. In my case I'm not too worried besides the fact that I can't sleep an entire eight hours straight anymore, very annoying for me, the jobs I do will probably kill me before anything sleep agnea can do to me long term. I'll start getting more concerned once I get a decent paying job though.

Things I have experienced are my arms and legs are numb or get that way rarely if I lay down in bed.

Alex

John Warner

sucks to hear about that. i'm not sure what a possible solution is, but i hear all sorts of weird issues surrounding going into and exiting sleep when one's consciousness starts to develop a bit. apparently when you start lucid dreaming, it's not uncommon to be "locked in" in the mornings.. when you have an experience of being awake but paralysed.

it's possible that taking up a consciousness or awareness related disapline could help with this. you might also learn to lucid dream :O kinky sex time!

kinky sex!

Joshua Stubbles

I get the hypnic jerks 3-4 times a week at least. Very disturbing, and scares the hell out of my g/f hehe

I have mild apnea/snoring. It was horrible when I smoked. Since I quit, my g/f said it's gotten like 10x better. Being overweight does not help either, though I'll remedy that soon.

Another thing I found that helps is nasal spray. Although you can't use the medicated brands (like Afrin) for more than 3 days, they sure as hell open up those passages. Very enjoyable sleeping, as well as much better daytime breathing.