How would you explain/classify waking up automatically?, page 2

Originally posted by Lanotom
I think it may be something to do with the subconscious and our internal clocks.

I always go to bed at different times and I mean much different like hours apart each night. Sometimes 11 PM or 2:30 am or even 4:15 am but if I need to get up at a certain time I can without an alarm.

For example if I go to bed at 1 AM and need to be up at 6AM I believe I subconsciously send a signal to my brain to be awake in 5 hours and of course my internal clock takes it from there. I never awake on the hour always 10 or 15 minutes before I need to be up.

Your “Body Clock” that you are referring to is actually called your Circadian Rhythm . What happens is that this is set to make you go into REM sleep at a certain time every night (in my case day). So for instance if you normally go into REM at 2345, for example, and tonight you go to bed at 2300 then tomorrow you go to bed at 2340, you are still going to attempt to go into REM at 2345 on both nights. By way of another example to show this rhythm, if you ever stay up for a very long time, you might notice that you start to feel warmer then normal usually early in the morning when you would typically be sleeping. This is the temperature cycle of your body, which is also set by your circadian rhythm, being effected.

People that are shift workers often have a difficult time with this rhythm and it’s called Shift Worker Disorder . The proper way to get your rhythm to set to a different time is to consistently get to bed one hour later or earlier a night until you are in bed at the time you want to be in bed from now on.

Therefore, the point I am making to you is that if you tell yourself that you want to be up at 0600 every day, and no matter if you go to bed at 2100 or 0300 the previous night/morning, you still wake up at 0600, its not because your telling yourself to do it, but rather that your rhythm is still set to go into REM at 0600. So at 0600 when you go into REM sleep, if you have apnea, you could have an event an wake up.

SimonColynAdrian
Nice post, and good links and statistics. They funny part that you are absolutely dead on about is the amount of people that suspect they have a problem with sleeping and yet are in denial of it, self diagnose it, or think its not a big issue. The truth is that anything your body feels is important enough to spend a ¼ of your life doing, must be fairly important to your overall heath.

Originally posted by CHICKST3R
Could I get sleep apnea in the future even though I don't have it now?

Yes it is possible to get this later on in life for sure. Snoring is a very good sign that you have this problem. Even if you only snore in certain positions, or at certain times of the night, it is a sign. Like I said some people may only have it in the worst case sleeping scenario which is in Supine (on your back) REM stage sleep, some may get apnea only in REM in any position, some may only get it if they do something that makes them be more relaxed then they might normally be at night such as having a few drinks. The severity is going to be different for each person, yet the symptoms of the disorder are well documented. Here are some things that can cause you to get sleep apnea:

1) Weight
2) Loss of muscle tone with increased age.
3) Physical damage, such as breaking your nose (Deviated Septum)
4) Surgical procedures or anything that may cause scar tissue inside your airway.

There might be more causes, but those are the most common.
Here is a link to a book of definitions on Sleep Medical Terms , you can also check the links here at the APT (Association of Polysomnographic Technologists) This is the main group that most sleep technicians belong to, so you can find answers to just about anything you want to know about sleep through their links and articles.