Rest of the Sleep Disorders Forum Posting

Posted by flubdub on July 19, 2001 at 21:14:58:

In Reply to: Tossing & Turning posted by Juls on July 18, 2001 at 18:08:00:

Anything that causes you to be awake enough to feel a little discomfort could result in your tossing about. You can easily be awake enough to move without being aware of it yourself.

Check out apnea - you don't necessarily need to snore for this. If you are having trouble breathing you would move around to try to get some air. Get your sleepy hubby to listen to how your breathing sounds. Are you holding your breath? Gasping for air? You might be able to get a (fast and inexpensive) finger-pulse oximetry test done to see whether you are in fact having trouble getting air at night, and see if you're on the right track for apnea.

Something like RLS (restless leg syndrome) might be occurring, though I don't know much about this. It involves movement during the night, though I've only heard about leg and foot kicks and twitches. There are also some disorders that will muck up the mechanism that usually keeps our muscles inactive while we're dreaming, so we "act out".

Best bet is to see a qualified sleep doctor and get a sleep test. But you may need to do some research to get backup first if you have to get referred by a PCP, since a lot of docs don't know a lot about sleep medicine (yet).

Of course, you might consider what it is that keeps your husband awake enough to realize you're tossing - that is, was he awake before you tossed, or did the tossing wake him? Does HE have trouble breathing, or snore? IF he's always in light stages of sleep because of his problems, he'd be more apt to wake up, not know why, and then blame it on you! Maybe it's HIS tossing that's making you tired, and you're too just tired to wake up and catch him first. ;-)

Good luck
f.

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