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Re: Frightened Sleeping at Night (OK I got windy!)

Posted by Steve on April 04, 2001 at 08:51:34:

In Reply to: Frightened Sleeping at Night posted by Cat on April 04, 2001 at 07:12:18:

Cat,

You describe all of the symptoms of apnea. There are over 80 various types of sleep disorders. What you are experienceing is certainly NOT normal sleep. There is something wrong and your doctor needs to listen and give you a referal. As someone already advised, make an appointment, tell them you want to discuss sleep apnea when you make the appointment, and when you see the doctor, tell him/her that you want a referal for a sleep study. If he/she refuses or puts you off in any way, ie. suggests blood tests, alergy tests, a meds prescription without a referal, SEE ANOTHER DOCTOR!

My doctor of some 30 years never asked me how I sleep. He has checked my blood pressure on every visit and I am border line medication level. I am a big guy, so he assumes the blood pressure is weight driven. Heaven forbid it could be from the stresses of sleep apnea. There are several posts in here from people who were on multiple meds for multiple problems - all driven by apnea. Now that they are on a good treatment program for the apnea, some of them have been able to drop the meds. Doctors seem to want to treat the syumptoms of apnea because there is a prevelant feeling that if we overweight people would lose the weight, the apnea would go away. That may be true in many cases, however, it is a vicious circle that has to be broken somewhere. Getting a good nights sleep is the best place to start.

Until you can get a sleep study done and all of the follow on activities to determine the cause of your problem, if it is apnea, I suggest the following.

1) Try not to get more worked up about. Try to relax. I would think obsessing about it would only make the stress much worse, making the physiological reactions worse. In other words, dont think yourself into being worse.

2) If you have a tendency to sleep on your back - DONT! My seeming apnea (I am not officialy diagnosed yet) is much worse when I am on even a slightly backwards angle. Put extra pillows behind you to keep you from rolling over if you have to.

3) Call the doc RIGHT NOW! Do whatever you have to do to get the next available appointment. Even after you have the referal, you have to schedule with a sleep doc, schedule with the sleep lab, then schedule again with the sleep doc, then schedule again with the sleep lab, then schedule with the equipment provider. (At least that is how mine is oging so far. Others have had the test and been set up the next day.) It takes a while to get the therapy going is what I am trying to say. Dont waste time.

You have to put the energy into getting this looked at. Your doctor won't. Take the reigns and drive this thing!

Keep us posted on your progress or problems. This is a good bunch of people in here. Many are exeriencing apnea, some are sleep techs, many are on treatment and have experiences just like you are having. So, stay in touch.

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  • Sleep Deprivation due to Sleep Apnea and insufficient sleep are common and can present as insomnia, narcolepsy, or idiopathic hypersomnia. In infants and children sleep problems commonly present themselves as ADD or ADHD.


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