posted
I wonder if being in an unfamiliar place, knowing you are being watched, and being hooked up to a bunch of equipment would affect one's ability to sleep?
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posted
It does for some people. I've done the overnight sleep labs, and I had no problem falling asleep. Over 1000 times. (PLMD, 2-4x a minute x 8 hours= 960-1920x. OSA, 45x an hour x 8 hours= 360x) Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
So, I just talked with the doctor about my sleep study.
Apparently it was mostly normal. I woke up more than normal during the night, but there were no low oxygen levels. A also get less than half normal of deep sleep, but I have normal levels of REM sleep.
So, it was a bust.
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I know that feeling. You don't really want to be sick, but you know that if they had found something, you'd probably stop feeling like crap. It's sorta bittersweet.
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Do you ever have days in which you're more rested than others? Did you feel more rested after the sleep study than you usually do? I'm wondering if maybe you have an intermittant problem of some sort, or if there is something in your bedroom at home (an allergen or something) that is causing you to sleep more poorly than you did at the sleep study lab.
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I actually got what felt like pretty poor sleep during the sleep study, but they said it was fine. Posts: 751 | Registered: Apr 2005
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I wish I had some brilliant insight for you, but I'm coming up blank. They didn't have *any* insight into this? Just "you seem fine to us, out you go"?
posted
Did they say anything about whether you're cycling through the different sleep stages normally? If you got less than half sleep as is normal, they have to have some idea of what's going on. If they're seriously that perplexed, but they can see that you didn't sleep well, then they ought to do it a second time to see if they missed something. And they should pass the results on to another sleep specialist to see if the second knows something the first doesn't. Or you do that. But either way, don't just take their word for it. Get someone else to look at it.
There are a lot of sleep disorders, and most of them do not involve low oxygen levels or missing REM sleep.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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I am having a sleep study tonight, y'all. I finally decided that my roommate's having seen me stop breathing in my sleep, and my best friend having told me my snoring sounds like her father's (he does have sleep apnea) and the fact that I'm fatigued all the time, is something I should look into.
Sorry for bumping such an old thread, but my mind kept coming back to it when I thought about having this test done.
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Ryuko, good luck, and may you exhibit typical symptoms.
Porter, get a second opinion. Being tired and feeling like you're not sleeping well are not good signs, and they shouldn't just shove you out the door with nothing.
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posted
I'm going through this whole rigamarole with doctors, though not for apnea. I've got insomnia. I'm on my 3rd doctor and here's what I've learned:
Sleep problems are extremely common and there are a LOT of them. Many doctors can recognize a few, so you need to keep switching doctors until you can find one that can recognize yours. I've been to a primary care doc, who put me on ambien (no effect) then sent me in for a sleep study, got the result back that I, indeed, did not sleep, and so she sent me on to a neurologist, who put me on anti-anxiety drugs for a little while, then didn't seem to remember me for the second visit, so I switched to doctor #3, who is a neurologist who specializes in sleep disorders. He's been the most helpful so far, and he's sending me to a cognitive sleep therapist. We'll see how that goes. I've had two doctors who thought a sleep study was a good idea and another that says they're useless for insomnia. I've had three different opinions about what might cause the insomnia, or what is even a possibility. I think the truth of the matter is that no one really knows.
But I haven't had a normal sleep cycle for as long as I can remember and this last bout of insomnia has gone on for... months? A year? I've lost count. It's been horrible. I've cut back on my work a lot so that I can keep quality up, but I have to be very choosy in my schedule. Each day I've got a small amount of energy, and I use it as best I can, but my house is a wreck and I feel blindsided by a bus at the end of the day. I don't feel sleepy, just exhausted beyond belief. This condition crept up on me so gradually that I didn't notice for a long time.
Anyway, the moral of the story is keep looking until you get the answers you need. Ignore the useless opinions, take a copy of your sleep study to another specialist, or another primary. Keep going!
Posts: 700 | Registered: Feb 2000
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Sleep studies are not useless for insomnia if the insomnia is caused by another treatable sleep disorder, such as restless leg syndrome/periodic limb movement disorder, which can appear to be nothing more than insomnia until a sleep study is done.
OlavMah, I feel for you. I really do. I have two primary sleep disorders - apnea and periodic limb movement. It took me over a decade of feeling like hell and being diagnosed with depression and having a huge number of blood and urine tests to test me for everything but sleep. Good luck getting this sorted out.
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Hi quid, yeah, I've researched the matter quite a bit on my own and reached that same conclusion. It was worth getting one sleep study, but now I probably should not keep getting more, as some doctors would suggest. The result will be the same. Hours of data of me lying there doing my best impression of sleep, about four and half hours of actual sleep with few irregularities, and then a sudden awakening early in the morning and more of me doing my sleep impression until the alarm goes off. And yeah, one doctor put me on antidepressants. I think they're way too quick to turn to those. They didn't do much, except give me the side effects.
I'm curious about periodic limb movement though. I've heard that it's associated with latency of sleep onset. Is that true (for you, at least?)
Portabello, dumb question, but have you had blood work done? When I am exhausted the doctors usually test me for anemia and various viruses as part of the routine. For example, have they ruled out mono and epstien barr? (Of course, now that I check the date of your post, you may be all diagnosed and better now.)
For me, stress will make my PLM worse, as will being overtired. There are probably other triggers as well, and I can imagine that being too hot would contribute.
I've been told by the docs that PLM can be helped with calcium/magnesium supplements, herbal tea such as chamomile, and walking a couple of hours before bed. Hot baths can help relax the muscles (I'll never do that in this country.)
There are also drugs that work for it, too, but sometimes, you have to try a bunch before you find some that work for you. My first doc tried one with me, it didn't work, so he ruled out that entire class of drugs. I have no idea why, but I was too tired at the time to complain or do anything about it. Yippee.
Sometimes, the PLM will attack in the beginning of the night, sometimes in the middle, sometimes at the end, sometimes it'll skip around, sometimes it'll be the whole night. It varies. Which sucks.
Another comment, though. It's also possible that the sleep study you had, either you were uncomfortable or stressed or relaxed, and therefore not typical, or the tech didn't wire things up just right, or the equipment was using a 15-second averaging instead of 2-second averaging. (Think about the difference equipment like that can make if your leg movements only last 4 or 5 seconds. Still long enough to wake you up, though.)
It still might be worth it to get a second sleep lab. It could show different things.
On that note, my sleep labs gave very different results on both the severity of my apnea and my PLM. It happens.
Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Okay, well that's good to know if I feel stalled out again with doctors. Right now I feel like I'm moving forward and that there's hope, so I'm happy (for now!)
What you said about limb movement monitoring is very good to know. Mine came out as zero, which does seem unlikely. Most people twitch a little!
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posted
Bumping an old thread to say that I do have sleep apnea. I'm on the CPAP right now but it's really hard to keep it on all night. (sigh) But, you know, closure... Woo....
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Ryuko, how long have you been on CPAP? It took me a while, as it does most people, to adjust to having a mask strapped on my face and the noise of the CPAP. I think it took me at least a week before I stopped ripping the mask off in the middle of the night, about a month before I slept through the night, and about six months before I stopped noticing it. Something like that.
It's normal to take time to adjust. Just know that and be patient. It'll work out.
How bad was your apnea? The morbidly curious side of me wants to know . . . Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Not very bad, actually. I think I had six episodes an hour, fifteen if you count low oxygen or whatever.. I have had the CPAP for two weeks tomorrow, and I still haven't stopped ripping it off two hours into falling asleep. I really need a chinstrap... :/
Although last Sunday I kept it on for five hours in the night and it was pretty awesome. I can't seem to fall asleep right now, which is not a good thing...
Posts: 4816 | Registered: Apr 2003
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posted
It'll get better. Trust me - been there, done that. It's just an adjustment thing. Keep plugging away, and it'll work out.
A chin strap is a good idea, but I'll also tell you that most people I know who needed one only needed it for the first month or so. You're talking about still breathing through your mouth? Yeah, it'll change - again, it's an adjustment thing.
Six episodes an hour, or even 15, isn't bad. When I was at my worst, it was 45 an hour, but that changed to my current 6 or 10 (weight loss plus improved tone in throat? No idea.) My uncle is severe at 120 per hour.
Good luck and keep us posted. Posts: 8355 | Registered: Apr 2003
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Thanks. I know it's not that severe, but it's really a relief to know that there actually is something wrong with me. I'm sure I've had it for a long long time and that my sleep debt is massive... I'm just looking forward to, someday in the future, not being tired all the time.
And with that, I'm going to take a nap.
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