I Had a Sleep Study Done Last Night

originally posted by: reldra
a reply to: intrptr

Yes I do. After 20 years of this, everything has been tried. From not exercising right before bed to what not to eat, what to eat, every sleep medication available, meditation, Feng Shui, removing electronics form my bedroom, bi naural beat music........

Do you turn off your Wifi at home?

The hospital is full of wifi and it is hard for some to sleep because of it.

a reply to: reldra

First off, what a brave and smart move by opening this up for discussion.

I too suffer with insomnia, not consistently, but in waves.

I can usually associate mine with stress or anxiety.

I have a strict no medicine rule. Medicine creeps me out with sleep as I notice my dreams (defragging) change. Even melatonin is a very big no no, the dreams sometimes feel like they last for months and I wake up feeling worn out trying to compartmentalize my reality thoughts and dreams for a while.

If I can tell it's anxiety, again, no medicine. Anxiety can be very natural and I find it interesting so many people act as if it's an unwanted response of the body. It would be like using a feeding tube because you hate he sensation of being hungry.

I think anxiety is the minds reaction to missing something, that's the hard part, finding what you need in life that will satisfy it. I call anxiety brain is hungry Haha, while it be for new work, new environment, new human companionship (friend or more significant), these are all things we all have to answer..

I always believe for the intelligent we are our best doctors (take with a grain of salt). And often times we can get rid of ailments without medicine. As medicine in many cases treat symptoms not problems. Much like using a bucket for a roof leak.

originally posted by: tnhiker
I had one done several years ago. Aside from the mess of wires and me complaining it wasn't natural, I have extreme sleep apnea. I am way more central than obstructive. The cpap machine doesn't work for me, because for some reason my brain fires off random impulses that wake me up. Over a 2 hour period I had roughly 200+ occurrences. The dr said the data must have been faulty because he had never seen one that bad and wanted me to come back a month later. Second test was done with the cpap machine on and was nearly as bad. The obstructive cases were much smaller, but the central were as bad. It's something I just live with and nap when I can. I haven't had more than 2 hours of consecutive sleep in years.

Have somebody check the brain spikes they recorded, its possible your brain is misfiring and waking you up.

You can get a BiPAP or Auto setting on a CPAP Machine. This will correct your central apneas.

You do not have to live with this.

originally posted by: reldra
a reply to: intrptr

Yes I do. After 20 years of this, everything has been tried. From not exercising right before bed to what not to eat, what to eat, every sleep medication available, meditation, Feng Shui, removing electronics form my bedroom, bi naural beat music........

That is a good start. The most effective is an actual "light and sound" device. This consists of little device you hook up both ear phones and sunglasses-like things with LEDs on the inside of the lenses. You close your eyes, start the deep sleep program, and sit back and watch the pretty light show. At first (and the first few times), you are like, "Pffft! Crap..." but that is because you are not used to it. Then you begin tracking with the device as it first brings up, then steps you down to a deep REM state. You kind of wake up and strip of the glasses and ear phones then roll over back to sleep.

I have problems waking up a couple hours too early (like 3 AM or 4 AM) every now and then and not being able to go back to sleep. I bought this back in the nineties. I hardly use the thing now but it does sit right by my bed just in case it is needed. The other programs are also helpful when you are first getting used to having this assist you get back to sleep. It is also good at de-stressing after "one of those days".

Hope you find an answer. I know, it is anecdotal evidence but hey, when you have insomnia you are never fully asleep and you are never fully awake. Everything is a copy of a copy of a copy...

[ETA: Nice zombie pic! And yes, that is a Tyler Durden quote]

Had a sleep study done once as part of figuring the migraines out.

Nothing out of the ordinary. I just tend to have a hard time shutting my brain off and then waking it up.

a reply to: reldra

Hi reldra, I have not read the other replies in this thread yet, but wanted to let you know that I am a sleep technologist. I've been doing sleep studies for 10 years now, and imho am pretty damn good at my job. You are welcome to message me if you have any questions.
I would also recommend googling "retrognathia." It sounds like that's what they were telling you that you have, regarding the small chin. An oral app,iance that pulls the lower jaw forward can work well to correct airway onstructions caused by retrognathia.
I'm skeptical that you slept enough to say for sure that you don't have apnea. It really depends on whether you had REM sleep during that time (sometimes apneas only occurs during REM due to the paralysis of the intercostal muscles).
I'll try to read through the rest of the thread asap, and may comment further if I see something worth mentioning. Unfortunately there is a lot of misinformation out there about sleep medicine, and not all sleep centers are created equal.

a reply to: galaga

AutoCPAP may not be the best thing for central apnea. I'd lean more towards doing BiPAP ST or AutoSV.

Everything else you've said in this thread is spot on, though. I can tell you're being legit when you say you used to de a sleep tech.

An MSLT requires at least 6 hours of sleep the night before, and typically doctors don't want you to take a sleep aid the night before. Since an MSLT tests for narcolepsy and idiopathic hypersomnia, I doubt they'd try to do this on a person with an insomnia complaint.

EDIT: this was meant to be a reply to NarcolepticBuddha's post.

a reply to: tombanjo

OP, was more or less tested for sleep apnea...I was given an MSLT for suspected sleep apnea.

Forgive my curiosity, o wise sage!

I had gone to 25 people ages from 35-65 that I know and asked if they were having sleep issues all but 6 of them answered yes.

I asked how often and 16 said at least 4 times a week. the rest were 3 and 2 days. 22 said they woke between 2-4am. 3 said they awoke between 4-5 am. All said once they awoke they had a very difficult time to go back to sleep. 18 fell back to sleep after three hours. 5 fell back to sleep after two hours. 2 fell back to sleep in one hour.

all of them work full time jobs.

My last question was if they had wifi All but two said yes. The two that answered no live in a condo complex.

No matter what anyone says I still think wifi does affect our sleep patterns.

I am going to go to those with wifi and ask them to turn their wifi off upon going to bed for 30 days. then after that I will see how their sleep has changed.

a reply to: ChesterJohn

WiFi might, but we put in a WiFi modem in our house and I haven't noticed it affecting any of the three of us.

My sleep patterns haven't changed that I can tell.

It could be that some people are more sensitive to it than others or that the WiFi signals some places use are stronger in frequency to cover larger areas.

a reply to: NarcolepticBuddha

I was just trying to explain normal sleep study protocols. No offense intended. Unless I'm incorrect in reading sarcasm in your last sentence...

how about when you go on vacation, menaing completly changing the picure around? somewhere on a nature, camping, sleeping under the bare sky, - far from what surrounds you right now?
In my opinion, and I've been through the whole- a lot of years-insomnia period, you need a comlete change of a picture. I ahd a friend with a similar situation, tried literally everything , and then he just went to live in a country, far from the big city, back to the roots. Little house in the small town,. tons of fresh air, fresh vegetables, cut the most of the hormon-ifused chickens and red meat, and he is sleeping like a baby at his own words. Clear state of mind, what he say.

originally posted by: NarcolepticBuddha
a reply to: tombanjo

OP, was more or less tested for sleep apnea...I was given an MSLT for suspected sleep apnea.

Forgive my curiosity, o wise sage!

An MLST is not to test for sleep apnea. It's to test for narcolepsy.

originally posted by: tombanjo
a reply to: galaga

AutoCPAP may not be the best thing for central apnea. I'd lean more towards doing BiPAP ST or AutoSV.

Everything else you've said in this thread is spot on, though. I can tell you're being legit when you say you used to de a sleep tech.

Thank you man. I've been out of the business for 3 years.