Re: sleep meds, sleep apnea, help finding CPAP machine

[Guest guest]

I have to agree with Val. You really need the sleep study. They will

test you the first 1/2 of the night for SA. The second half they will

fit you with a cpap & adjust the setting on it.

Sol, with SA you wake up because you stop breathing. If you did not

wake up you would suffocate & die! This is why with SA you never feel

like you are rested. You will be waking up all night long.

Gale

>

> I finally got a call with my oxymeter test. The first thing the nurse

> said was that the good news was that I won't need oxygen at night.

What?

> I am supposed to have a full hospital or sleep lab sleep study done as

> soon as I can. She did say I will most likely need a CPAP. The funny

> thing I forgot to tell her is that I actually slept better than usual

> that night. I assume if that had not been the case the results would

> have been worse? Or does it just mean I did get an accurate result?

>

> Since I sleep so little, and am desperately uncomfortable in strange

> surroundings. I have never slept when hospitalized before so don't see

> why I would for a sleep study. I honestly think it will be a huge waste

> of time, stress, and money/ And then the fight with the insurance

> company will start. . I will go see the PA and try to see if anything

> can be worked out for a trial of a CPAP without the sleep study, as I

> truly don't think a study will do any good if I don't sleep at all

> during it. By now I'm at the point I'd go for one, and to hell with

the

> money, time, stress, but I don't think one will produce any results, so

> see no point to it. If a person has such a study, and doesn't sleep at

> all, do they still give you a CPAP to try, or just keep on making you

> try more studies? My experience is there is nothing in the way of sleep

> meds I can be given that would actually produce sleep, and if there was

> such a med, wouldn't it mess up the study anyway?

>

> Perhaps I should explore any possibility of getting a CPAP machine

> myself, and doing what Val is doing, just trying it out. How is it

going

> Val?

>

> Last night I was so desperate, I pulled out 3 of the failed sleep

> meds in my stash, and seriously considered taking some of all three.

> Sanity prevailed, and I looked up effects and interactions first, and

> found that all are CNS and respiratory depressants. I ended up taking

> nothing, but it made me wonder if that is why sleep meds don't work

for me.

> If I don't sleep because I stop breathing from sleep apnea, meds

that

> depress respiration might just make the apnea worse leading to even

more

> insomnia? After 2 + decades of severe sleep deprivation, I think my

body

> has trained itself to either not fall asleep at all or to wake me

before

> I actually stop breathing? Didn't someone say that is possible?

> Thinking back, most sleep meds I've tried have led to worse sleep on

> the nights I've taken them. That has always been very confusing to me.

> Have I stumbled on the reason? Take a sleep med, respirations are

> depressed, and my body works even harder to keep me from going to sleep

> and stopping breathing?

> sol

>