Sleep Study Night Two

The second night of the sleep study started off more or less like the first night. One change is that my sleep tech this night was a lovely youngster name Sarah. Another change, because they were now convinced that my problem was sleep apnea, is that they added a Cpap mask to the mix.

The first mask that they tried… also the smallest and least obtrusive… was a small canula-type that basically covered the bottom of my nose. So I test-drove that one by laying and watching TV with it turned on for a while. The problem was that I sounded like Darth Vader when I breathed. So I asked Sarah to come in and trade it out.

We skipped the intermediate-size mask and went straight to the largest which covered my entire nose and mouth. This mask was nice and quiet, and, once I got the trick of exhaling, more comfortable than you might think.

So I went to sleep.

I woke up a couple of times, like I always do. Finally I started to drift in and out of sleep, very thirsty. The problem with this type of mask is that it's very difficult to remove on your own. Apparently the home version has a mask that can be removed more easily. Finally, when I felt a small amount of cold drool seep out from under the corner of the mask, I called Sarah, who came in and took in off for me. I decided to go to the bathroom while I was there. Sarah told me something that the young man before hadn't… there was a strap like a purse strap on the small machine that I had to bring into the bathroom with me. Made using the toilet much easier when I could just swing the strap over my shoulder, and hold it behind me.

I got my drink, got my mask readjusted, and found out from Sarah that it was about 2 AM. This time, though, I was actually able to get back to sleep successfully. The next time that I remember waking up was when Sarah came in a little after five to turn my lamp on.

I actually did feel reasonably rested… but I do sometimes. So it was hard for me to judge how much the oxygen helped.

I went home, and, as I started waking up a little, actually started to feel a little more energized. I did some housework, wrote a little, and then started to feel a little more tired. So I lay down on the couch to watch a movie. When I realized that I was nodding off, I turned the movie off, thinking that I would take a short nap. I woke up for good (I had had several "arousals") about two hours later, feeling like someone had beaten me with a baseball bat wrapped in foam as I frequently do after a nap. So I started to doubt the Cpap machine's efficiency.

When I got the results, I REALLY had reason to doubt.

My total sleep time on the mask was down to 3 hours and 39 minutes. Just under 2 hours in stage 1, an hour and a half in stage 2 and none in stage 3/4 again. Both nights I got about sixteen minutes in REM sleep. And my number of arousals had almost doubled to 220.

I haven't spoken to my doc yet, but this makes the Cpap mask seem like an absolute bust to me.

You are not alone.

Randal