I was thinking about it this morning. I get almost exactly eight hours most nights. I usually read until about 11:30 or 12, and wake naturally between 7:30 and 8 every morning. I feel great with eight hours, and I can get by OK with seven but any less than that and I feel tired and grumpy all day. Grumpy Dio is an ***. Sleep is awesome.
I get about 6. I'd like to get more, but I just can't make myself go to bed earlier. I can tell you this -- I got about 3 before I got my CPAP machine.
I usually get about 7 hrs of sleep. I'll do 8 when I've had a long week. Funny thing though, I can't sleep more than 7 hrs on a weekend to save my life. And lucky to get 4 hrs of hotel sleep. Just can't do it.
I'm jealous of you Texanne. I have sleep apnea and the mask doesn't work for me. I had the big surgery in December '07, and since then I've tried and tried the mask. Shoot, I'll probably go get another mask and try again. It's nearly free with my wife's health insurance I take an upper every morning during the week to keep me going, and I crash when I get home from school. Literally fall asleep in front of the TV every afternoon at least for a half hour. (it's better than falling asleep in the car. I totaled two cars in the last two years doing that) I've also noticed I dream much better when I sleep sitting up.
To the above question, a CPAP is a mask apparatus that aids somebody in breathing. Sleep Apnea is one of a few disorders that prevent a person from getting deep sleep. It increases the flow of oxygen through your airways so you don't wake yourself up, consciously or not, throughout the night. How'd I do? I have a deviated septum but not apnea. I am lucky though. I have lucid dreams and average about 5.5 to 6.5 hours which is more than as recent as ten years ago. I just don't like to go to bed early though I can when I need to or want to. If I get more than 8 hours sleep I am groggy and grumpy for awhile. 7 is optimum.
I have a CPAP and it worked wonders for my sleep. I don't have apnea, but breathe shallowly. It meant that if I only get 6 or 7 hours of sleep, I can function. If I sleep with no alarm and no need to get up I sleep at least 10 hours. Everyone knows not to call me before noon on Saturday!
Wow Bat, that's a lot!!! Does that extra time really make you feel better and recharged? That's awesome if so and good for you. i think I am going to make an effort to push my sleep up to 7 hours, 8 on weekends. There is just so many things to do and places to go to that I always accept invitations and try to make as many as I can. A peril of living in Austin perhaps.
loop, you were technically right on but not quite completely accurate. CPAP is a gift from God Almighty that allows everyone in my family to sleep better. I sleep better. I don't snore so my wife sleeps better. The rest I get means I am not a complete dick around the house which means my daughters sleep better. The "PAP" stands for positive air pressure I think but I forgot what the C means. Basically it's forced air movement. I have obstructive sleep apnea and when I did my study I was having upwards of 80 episodes an hour. According to what the doc told me, that means my brain was "waking up" more than once a minute, essentially eliminating any real value of the sleep and someone without apnea who got a three hour nap in the middle of the day gets more rest rhan me.
I "use" the mask, as in I havent' used it in a while. The upper I take masks the problem, but I still suffer from daytime sleepiness after the upper wears off. I will try again. I've been in a different bedroom from my wife for a couple of years now. It's much easier on her. I'm going to try something different this summer. I'm starting a bootcamp workout in a week. I've done this before and I get a natural high from this not too different from my upper. Then after I get that going, I'm going to try a different mask. I bet my lung doctor orders another sleep test.(it's pretty cheap; bc/bs, and changes the air pressure. It's pretty frustrating, but maybe someday I'll find a mask that actually works for me.) The weird thing is that when I have a sleep test, I don't feel like I sleep any better, even though they supposedly put a mask on part of the time. I wish I had more confidence in the sleep lab. I guess I kind of distrust the medical profession as a whole, and this whole apnea business is one reason why. If I had it to do over again, I would try for the office procedure that's not covered by the insurance. When I first heard about that, it only cost about $1500. I bet it's $3000 now. Who knows if it works either though?
Well, if you can get them to let you try the nasal pillows. The mask was was incredibly uncomfortable and I lasted about thirty minutes in it before we switched. You'll have to get used to it though as you'll make funny noises if your mouth opens in the middle of the night.
I tried the nasal pillows -- didn't work for me. I use the nose-only mask. Hotel sleep is impossible for me, even with the mask. I just can't sleep away from my own bed. The "C" stands for Continuous.
Just stumbled on this thread. I typically get about 7, but have a baby coming any day now, so I'm in for a rude awakening (no pun intented). My hope is to be able to average 4.5/night in any given week, but I'm being cautiously optimistic. I think I'm going to be getting a non-sleeper as my first child, as karmic payback for the transgressions in my life.
I know, Dio, I'm spiting the Gods by my sleep estimates once the little one arrives, but once I reach maximum tiredness, I'm quasi-comatose. I plan on this to help bring my average UP to 4.5/day. Surely, 1 of 7 days she'll decide that 4 am isn't where it's at. However, my dogs are in for a rude awakening. No longer are 15 hours of sleep going to fly in my house, not with a new one on the way.
You think the mask will be awful, but it's really easy to get used to. And once you do, you'll not want to sleep without it. I use it even I just lie down to take a nap.
I sleep from around midnight to 6am during the week. If I go to be any earlier I have a hard time getting up. I do have to stay active after work, if I go anywhere near the couch between 6-8pm, bam I am out like a light for at least an hour. Then I can't get to sleep later.
Are plugs the same as the pillows or the nose only mask? I have not been diagnosed with apnea and feel I sleep pretty well but if there is this whole new dimension of sleep available I may not be getting, l want in! I don't get tired during the day or nod off and when I am really tired I just go to bed earlier but again, if something can give even better sleep I am interested. I have pretty good insurance too.
I suspect by plugs he meant pillows. The nose only mas is kinda like a triangle that seals around the nose and upper lip, and this is opposed to the full mask with encompasses the nose and mouth together. Loop I don't know how much help it would be without apnea. What my cpap does Is to allow me to get the kind of sleep you seem to be getting now without.
Ah. Were you just totally lethargic all day? Nobody likes waking up necessarily but was it just tougher to get going or what were your signs?
My first clue was constant snoring. Snoring to the level that woke my wife up several times in the night. I had some lethargy throughout the day, and sometimes I would have to fight to keep myself awake on my drive home after work. The key that drove me to seek a doctor's advice was that I had two incidents where in the middle of the night I basically woke up choking and unable to catch my breath. They happened about 3-4 weeks apart, and after the second I made my appointment the next day.
