I finally had a sleep study done.
After retirement, I was sleeping 14 hrs a day.
The pills I take at bedtime are frequently found in accidental suicides - opioids, benzodiazepines, blood pressure, I used to wash it down with vodka, but stopped that.
I was stopping breathing about 70x an hour.
The 14 hours was probably required to get in ANY REM (dreaming) sleep.
I now use CPAP.
And still get the “go to sleep” NOW type fatigue. When I do lie down, I get a dream or two and then promptly wake up.
Forget the long-term consequences - that “I want sleep NOW” trick is likely to be fatal if it comes at the wrong time.
I’m sure I have it. I could sleep 9-11 hrs. If I get 7 hours I’m sleepy. I snore no matter what position I’m in. I just wish I could get a CPAP machine to try out without a prescription, no way I’m messing with a sleep study.
But I feel like I sleep hard, it takes a lot to wake me up at times.
That “hard to wake up” is a classic sign of REM. And apnea.
I am not recommending this, but: Craigslist will occasionally have someone who is either desperate for money or disposing of the deceased’s “stuff” and list a CPAP.
CL’s TOS prohibit “Prescription” medicines or devices, but many do not realize there is a prescription required for CPAP.
It is possible to do. I had two sleep studies and was officially diagnosed with sleep apnea but the chain of sleep clinics I had my last study done suddenly closed its doors one day and took the records of me and tens of thousands of other patients with it. I was told that I would have to have yet another sleep study to get another CPAP machine when my old one wore out.
I wasn’t having any part of that because sleep studies really do suck and I already knew the results. I just found a brand new model of the one that I wanted (the top-rated Resmed S9 AutoSet) on Craigslist. The person that it was prescribed for needed it a whole lot more than I ever did but he refused to even try it. I bought it from him for $350 which is a damned good deal all things considered. It is an “intelligent” CPAP so no calibration is required (that isn’t true for lots of models, especially the older ones). I just took it out of the packaging, selected the correct nose pillow size from the choices provided, turned it on and let it do its thing. Replacement parts like hoses, nasal pillows or full masks don’t require a prescription after you have the base unit.
I have also heard it is possible to find doctors that will prescribe one without a sleep study but many of them charge a “consultation fee”. That is obviously a scam of sorts but it would work for someone like me.
There is nothing illegal about having a CPAP without a prescription. It is simply a protected market that was created when they were a lot less user friendly. No matter what you do though, keep in mind that wearing one feels a little odd at first and takes practice for many people. You have to learn to sleep with your mouth closed or the air will simply rush out. It becomes completely natural over time but may not feel that way at first. If you get one from a sleep clinic, they will coach you on everything about proper use and care. If you just pick one up yourself, you are going to need to teach yourself by reading, asking or watching Youtube videos. There is nothing complicated about it but it isn’t something that most people would know a lot about intuitively either.
That’s crazy talk for most folks. What’s so darn hard about an overnight or two to properly understand a long-term life-threatening condition you almost certainly already have?
Sleep studies aren’t that bad. I didn’t want to do one either but it was the only way to convince the doctors I didn’t have sleep apnea. I started with a home study, and then did the overnight at the clinic. It was a little annoying to take the time out to do it, but that’s about it. And you can take a sleeping pill too, they’ll give you Ambien or other drugs so you don’t have to worry about lying awake all night in a strange place. It is expensive though, but the sleep clinics are very good at convincing insurance companies to pay for it.
Yes, $1000 is a lot. But many pay more than that per year on cable tv or fast food lunches. Sleep is a huge quality-of-life issue, even when there isn’t a medical condition involved. It’s worth cutting out some of those other things (if at all possible), IMO.
Ya’know, I used to wake up with caffeine headaches. I used to also have sleep attacks in the afternoon. One night with a CPAP convinced me that I have mild apnea. I did an at home sleep study and it showed the same. I have missed a couple of nights over the past two years. Hmmm, on missed nights, I wake up with a caffeine headache and have afternoon sleep attacks, all the other nights I do use the CPAP machine, I wake up and don’t have a caffeine headache and don’t have afternoon sleep attacks. YMMV.
The tone of your post didn’t signal (at least to me) that money was the issue.
I read it as the prospect of the test process itself was soooo distasteful as to be a non-starter. Which seemed pretty short-sighted. A few other posters had also expressed their distaste for the process, but yours sounded especially over-the-top. Hence my comment aimed mostly to you, not to everyone.