I was browsing the site and read Christian 's article on sleep and it's relationship to mental health so I thought I'd do an update on my sleep study. It wasn't scheduled for another week but the center called a couple of weeks ago with a cancellation and got me in early. There were a couple of significant findings. My incidents/hour had actually gone down since my last study but the severity had increased dramatically and the apneas are now primarily central rather than obstructive. I missed the cut off for Narcolepsy by about three seconds which, in this case, is apparently about a mile. We started the study on a CPAP at my normal setting of 10 and the tech came in about an hour later and said I might as well not have it on. So she started titrating the pressure up. We eventually wound up out of the CPAP and nasal mask and into a BiPAP and full face mask at 22/18. That seemed to make a world of difference. She said I didn't move a muscle and slept soundly at that setting so orders were placed or a new machine.
I've had my new BiPAP for just about a week now and I'm averaging a little over 4 hours of sleep/night. That may not seem like a lot but it's more than I would get in some weeks before. I even feel like I've been asleep when I wake up now. I can't remember when that last happened. My memory is even a little clearer. I'm hoping things just continue to improve. And I write this as a testimony toward Christian's article.
Take care,
Randy