It’s Barnaby again, and I’d like to follow up on my previous post about sleep apnea treatments. In order to know that you need a sleep apnea treatment, it is first required that you be able to recognize sleep apnea symptoms. Sleep apnea is a condition which entails the cessation of breathing multiple times during the course of the night. This leaves those who have sleep apnea waking up gasping for breath over and over — which obviously does not lend to a good night’s sleep. If you experience the following sleep apnea symptoms, then you should strongly consider getting a sleep apnea test in order to ascertain whether you are suffering from this condition:
- Excessive and loud snoring
- Waking up gasping for breath
- Daytime sleepiness and difficulty concentrating
- Night time dry or sore throat
- Frequent headaches upon awakening in the morning
It is quite possible that having only one — or two — of these sleep apnea symptoms does not mean that you have sleep apnea. Obviously, everyone who snores does not have sleep apnea, nor does experiencing morning headaches indicate the presence of sleep apnea. However, when several symptoms appear together, then the odds that sleep apnea is the culprit rise. A sleep apnea test can be administered either at your home or at a health care facility. In some scenarios, this test might take all night — but it is well worth it in order to determine if you have this condition. Left untreated, sleep apnea can lead to much more serious medical conditions. Addressing sleep apnea symptoms at their onset helps reduce the chances of anything more serious ensuing — so if you feel that some of these sleep apnea symptoms apply to you, then get a sleep apnea test sooner rather than later.
Barnaby here. After spending a restless hour in bed watching my wife sleep I decided to come back out on the porch in order to catch the sun rise. Enjoying picturesque Florida sunrises each morning has been one pleasant benefit of my recent insomnia issues — however, candidly, I’d give up seeing the sun rise ever again in return for just one full night’s sleep. It has been over two weeks since I’ve gotten more than four hours on any given night, and it is beginning to take its toll. My boss has noticed — and so have my kids. I’ve become uncharacteristically irritable, and the lack of sleep is beginning to show in my face. Some days, I hardly recognize myself. After talking to friends, a plethora of doctors along with complete strangers, I’ve received what must be hundreds of sleep tips. They range from the serious (issues like sleep apnea) to the bizarre (one of the sleep tips told to me was to drink garlic spiked hot chocolate before attempting to go to sleep).
My current condition has caused me to become quite educated about the causes of insomnia, but unfortunately to this point none of the plethora of sleep tips I’ve discovered has worked for me. It started with paying attention to everything I ate or drank after 6pm. No more expresso with Sambuca after dinner, no more night time Mt. Dews and no chocolate in the evenings. I scrutinized everything I consumed during the evening hours, and if it contained even the smallest hint of caffeine I abstained. I’m not a huge drinker, but one of the sleep tips I received was to avoid alcohol in the evenings so I did — except for one especially bad night last week when another tipster told me to try 3 quick shots of Southern Comfort to see if that worked — but that’s a different story.
Another one of the easier sleep tips told to me was to make our bedroom as dark and quiet as possible. Trust me, Suz wasn’t thrilled at all with hanging a black sheet over the nice shades at night — but far cheaper than black-out curtains, and hopefully my insomnia is gone soon. I added to this earplugs and a sleep mask. The sleep mask was extremely uncomfortable and only served to seriously freak out my 2 year old James when he saw me in it, so that was ditched. So, starting around 10 days ago, each evening I went to bed without a hint of caffeine in my body in a very dark (but unfashionable with the ugly black sheet hanging on the wall) bedroom. Problem solved, right? I only wish it was that easy.
The sun is rising now. It really is beautiful, but at this point it has become almost a dreadful sight for me to see once again. Time to jump in the shower and fib to Suz once again telling her I was able to get at least a few hours of sleep.
Hello there, my name is Barnaby and I’m just an average 32 year old guy currently living in sunny Florida. To this point I have been quite fortunate finding my lovely wife Suzanne, and we have been blessed with two wonderful children — Annie is 11 and James just recently celebrated his second birthday. I have a good job, and although we are a far cry from being wealthy we are getting by just fine. Thankfully, we all have our health, and up until a few weeks ago I was leading a normal and relatively stress-free life. Then, all of a sudden, everything changed. For some reason — which I have yet to be able to determine — I began having serious sleep issues. It all started on July 4th weekend. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but at this point my inability to fall asleep is having a serious impact on all phases of my life. I’ve immersed myself in research, visited more doctors than I have in the past 5 years and visited hundreds of websites purporting to have a magic fix for my deepening sleep issues.
One of the most informative and objective sites I came across was this one — Cantsleep.com. This led me to email the site’s administrator, and since then we have developed a nice relationship. He extended an invitation to me to post my sleep issues, and seeing I have a lot of newfound late-night time on my hands I took him up on the offer. I admit that I am not the best writer in the world, but I’ll do my best to share my experience — and hopefully soon my cure — in the hopes that I can help someone else who is experiencing the same agony emanating from sleep issues. It seems that everything under the sun can be tied to sleep issues — from psychological causes dating back to your childhood all the way to a bad pillow. Pinpointing which issue is applicable — for me at least — has been like finding a needle in a haystack.
Well, thanks for listening to me ramble. It’s now 3:30am, and I am going to go quietly slip into bed attempting not to wake Suz. Then, I’ll pretend to wake up when she does as I’ve been doing for the last week. We tell each other everything, and I feel really bad now hiding my insomnia from her — but she has enough on her hands dealing with the two kids let alone having to baby me.
Hello there, my name is Barnaby and I’m just an average 32 year old guy currently living in sunny Florida. To this point I have been quite fortunate finding my lovely wife Suzanne, and we have been blessed with two wonderful children — Annie is 11 and James just recently celebrated his second birthday. I have a good job, and although we are a far cry from being wealthy we are getting by just fine. Thankfully, we all have our health, and up until a few weeks ago I was leading a normal and relatively stress-free life. Then, all of a sudden, everything changed. For some reason — which I have yet to be able to determine — I began having serious sleep issues. It all started on July 4th weekend. I didn’t think much of it at the time, but at this point my inability to fall asleep is having a serious impact on all phases of my life. I’ve immersed myself in research, visited more doctors than I have in the past 5 years and visited hundreds of websites purporting to have a magic fix for my deepening sleep issues.
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