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Re: Two newbie questions

Posted by cjm36 on July 29, 2004 at 22:20:39:

In Reply to: Two newbie questions posted by malakito on July 29, 2004 at 10:52:31:

Hello and Welcome to the Forum. You posted two very good questions. I know what it can be like trying to get good answers from doctors. Perhaps your posting will result in some more information, outside of the doctor's office, which will help to put things in perspective. I can add my two cents worth here...

Q1: Yes, the severity of sleep apnea can be variable from night to night. But if you have sleep apnea or some other type of sleep breathing disorder, it (whatever it is) will almost always occur during your sleep, or what passes as your normal sleep.

The best way to determine what's going wrong is to have a careful sleep study in a clinical sleep lab, and at the same time, be under the care of a physician who dedicates his or her practice to the diagnosis and care of sleep disorder patients.
Yet our health care system in the US being what it is, some of this care can come up short or be abbreviated. Many people today are only under the care of an internist or GP for their sleep disorder treatment, and many are getting only home tests (or no tests at all!)which may not be good enough to detect some types of sleep disorders.

Your best bet will always be to get with a specialized sleep doctor and get a full PSG test in a clinical sleep lab.

Q2: Yes, lack of dreaming can be a symptom of some types of sleep breathing disorders, including apnea.

If there is an indication that you may have some type of sleep breathing disorder, by home study or clinical study, your best bet would be to insist on a trial on a Positive Airway Pressure machine, aka CPAP, and see if the air pressure helps you sleep better.

The only two ways you have a chance to cure sleep apnea is through surgery or weight reduction, and those don't work for everyone. CPAP is the current gold standard for sleep apnea treatment.

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