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Posted by Suzette on September 27, 1997 at 23:51:31:I started having difficulties sleeping as a teen..it seems
I have never learned how to sleep well. I get a "good night's
sleep" approximately two times monthly. I cannot "shut off
my brain" to fall asleep, and I wake up frequently during the nite
often wide awake for a couple of hours. I have tried setting
regular sleep patterns...I exercise every morning as soon as I
get up, all the things we are routinely told to do to help ourselves.
I have sought the advice of physicians occasionally over the
years, however I don't feel I have been taken seriously by any of them.
I have learned to function on normally 3 to 4 hours of sleep nightly,
and these not being continuous, but cumulative hours of sleep.My husband also suffers from inability to sleep. His is more attributable
to chronic back pain and the fact that immobility for the hours
of sleep do aggravate this back problem. He also has not been taken
very seriously by any physician he has discussed this with.Approximately 10 months ago, I sought the advice of an ear,nose and throat specialist
regarding the snoring problem I have that drove my husband and I to
separate bedrooms, and the fact that this same snoring often
startled me out of my own sleep! He wanted to do a "sleep study"
with a home monitor. The cost of this procedure is approximately
$500 and my health insurance said if the results of the study
showed sleep apnea, they would pay for the procedure; however
if the results were negative to sleep apnea, they would not
pay at all. Obviously, we would have no way of knowing the rsults until
after the test was performed, thus the expense already incurred.I understand the advice regarding napping, however I must say
that after weeks of virtually NO sound sleep trying to avoid
napping, I decided I would take my sleep whenever I could get it.Both my husband and I are productive citizens, achieving well in our
occupations and have very little stress in our lives. Our sleep
difficulties do, however, cause us a great deal of frustration
in that our chronic fatigue leads to irritability and confusion
for us both, and for myself, also seems to cause a tendency
to be "accident prone".I wouls be interested in hearing about anyone else who has suffered
life-long or at least long-term sleep difficulties. I would
also like to know about anyone who has faced physicians or
health insurance agencies who do not considered this to be
a "real" medical concern and how they handled it.
- Re: 20+ years of sleep difficulties sleepyrick 18:11:06 9/28/97 (0)
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