I had my sleep assessment appointment today, and as predicted, I came home with the machine. It turns out that, while sleeping on my own without the machine, I never got any deep sleep--no REM sleep, or the even deeper sleep that happens. My total sleep was light and troubled--which is exactly how it felt to me.
More bothersome, however, is that I experienced significant apnea: both complete stoppage of my airways, and partial blockage. Over four hours of unaided sleep, I had stopped breathing an average of 13 times per hour. My partial blockages were even more frequent, with a total arrested breathing score of 53 times per hour.
That's nearly one per minute! Oh my god! I had no idea it was that bad! So, if you define "restful sleep" as "sleep when you aren't waking up all the time" then I wasn't getting it at all. No wonder I am tired all the time.
With the CPAP (Continuous Positive Air Pressure) machine, it took me forever to fall alseep--90 minutes! And that was starting at 2:30 in the morning. I knew it took me a long time to fall back asleep if I'm awakened! However, over the four hours of CPAP sleep, I did get deep sleep, and my apnea episodes fell to 3. That's quite a difference.
So, I guess I'm going to be sleeping with a machine now. I had to run out to get a power strip, so I can plug everything in that needs to be plugged in next to the bed: CPAP machine, reading light, alarm clock, window fan, table fan. . .
The whole thing is far from fashionable, but maybe this will help the same way taking antidepressants helped--that I'll discover that I'm myself again, and that what's been making me cranky, lethargic, exhausted, weepy. . .can be corrected! Maybe that will be worth the unattractive bed partner look I'll be sporting. Or maybe I'll just start sleeping in a burqa.
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