Hello Guest, Welcome to Apnea Board !
As a guest, you are limited to certain areas of the board and there are some features you can't use.
To post a message, you must create a free account using a valid email address.

or Create an Account


New Posts   Today's Posts

Sleep what is it
#1
Question 
Sleep what is it


What is the bottom line?

Are we just trying to keep breathing?

Are we trying to get a quality or quantity of sleep?

What is too much, what is not enough?

We know without the equipment we could stop breathing. What is our goal?
Is there a cure? We sent a man to the moon, but we can't cure apnea.

Thanks for reading my thoughts, what do you think?

Sleep-well

Muddpa

Post Reply Post Reply
#2
RE: Sleep what is it
To misquote René Descartes: "I sleep, therefore I am". Or more importantly: I sleep with a CPAP, therfore I am still alive!
INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. 
ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA.
Post Reply Post Reply
#3
RE: Sleep what is it
(03-12-2013, 05:07 PM)PollCat Wrote: To misquote René Descartes: "I sleep, therefore I am". Or more importantly: I sleep with a CPAP, therfore I am still alive!

hi bob, thanks for the info. took survey.
Post Reply Post Reply
#4
RE: Sleep what is it
It's kinda like with better breathing, we get better sleep. Our bodies and brains aren't waking up x a hour and our cells are getting adequate oxygen. There is no cure for sleep apnea. There is treatment. And the treatment works. Do I mind sleeping with a machine hooked to my nose every night? Every night for the rest of my life? Yeah, sure, I hate it. But it sure as heck beats the alternative!

As for sleep quality, we are all different. Some folks can survive just fine with less, some need more. Some can only sleep in certain conditions, some can sleep anywhere at any time. Then there's the food we eat, the liquids we drink, the stress we have, the fun we have - all of it contributes to quality of sleep.

If you feel you are not getting enough sleep or getting quality sleep, then evaluate your situation. Look into sleep hygiene. Talk to your regular doctor. If you take medication, discuss them with your doc or pharmacist to decide if any of them are interfering with sleep.
PaulaO

Take a deep breath and count to zen.




Post Reply Post Reply
#5
RE: Sleep what is it
(03-12-2013, 04:58 PM)Muddpa Wrote: Are we trying to get a quality or quantity of sleep?

Yes, to both.

Quote: What is too much, what is not enough?

For me there's no such thing as not enough. I average 9 hours a night of CPAP use. I'm probably asleep for at least 8 to 8.5 hours, but there are a lot of awakenings and not enough time spent in deep sleep.

Quote:We know without the equipment we could stop breathing. What is our goal?

To keep breathing.

Quote:Is there a cure? We sent a man to the moon, but we can't cure apnea.

There's a cure. They cut a hole in your throat and insert a sleeve with a stopper. Before going to bed you take the stopper out, then when you wake up in the morning you put the stopper back in.

I'll take the CPAP therapy, but if you're unlucky enough that a CPAP machine won't exert enough pressure to open your airway surgery is the only option left. And unless you get the radical surgery I just described there's a very good chance you'll still need a CPAP machine afterwards.

There are a variety of surgeries available, and there's a new high tech version using robotic surgery. The problems they cause, or their low success rate, make them not worth the cure in a lot of cases!
Sleepster

INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
Post Reply Post Reply
#6
RE: Sleep what is it
Sleepster - we don't consider a Tracheotomy a cure. It is a work around just as CPAP is - therapeutic only but it does not stop the cause, and it doesn't always work - in fact one reason we don't often do them any more is that they don't really work all that well in returning sleep quality to a lot of patients. Plus infection rates are lousy. And other complications as well. That is pretty much 1950's methods and long since dropped except for emergencies to save lives in immediate danger where intubation is either impractical or impossible or won't work. As a general therapy method, anyone who does it it today either has no other option to help the patient or aught to have their license lifted.

A cure means the cause is stopped. Cutting a hole in the throat to bypass the area of collapse won't do that and sometimes won't work, either.

So, what are cures? In a lot of cases, the best way is to lose weight and retone the muscles of the throat, using a Didgeridoo.
But that doesn't work in all cases, because the cause is not fat related or comes from elsewhere - in some cases, surgery is required to shorten the uvula or make other adjustments. They don't always work either. Plastic strips are inserted into the soft palette and the back of the throat sometimes - they don't always work, either. From a medical standpoint, CPAP is the best and cheapest response to the problem, and one that has the highest success rate, even though it is purely therapeutic in nature, meaning that if you don't use it for one session, the condition is still there and will immediately return. After that, for most common types of apnoea, weight loss and Didgeridoo. Surgery is almost always a poor third place to these.

And lose weight anyway, you'll feel better and sleep better no matter what, even if on a CPAP (in fact, one great problem is that some people on CPAP gain weight, mostly because they think they can eat whatever they want now that they have the problem in hand - no - do not go that route. Weight induced apnoea is a warning sign of other, deeper problems waiting to bite you, and the way to avoid the bite is to drop the excess avoirdupois).
Post Reply Post Reply
#7
RE: Sleep what is it
I don't agree about the trach. If you have obstructive sleep apnea trach removes the obstruction and therefore is a cure. I know of only one person who has a trach, a doctor who used to post on ***. If you have central apnea- no a trach won't cure that, but for garden variety a trach is a sure cure.
Post Reply Post Reply
#8
RE: Sleep what is it
Where did my post go, moderator? That wasn't a link it was a word and if you don't put it back I am out of here
Post Reply Post Reply
#9
RE: Sleep what is it
Who is moderating this morning?
The heck with it, I'm gone.
Post Reply Post Reply
#10
RE: Sleep what is it
(03-13-2013, 08:44 AM)zimlich Wrote: Where did my post go, moderator? That wasn't a link it was a word and if you don't put it back I am out of here

Any action taken by an Apnea Board moderator or admin will be identified as such. I'm not sure how that word got changed to a string of asterisks. Probably something done automatically by some software somewhere.

Sleepster

INFORMATION ON APNEA BOARD FORUMS OR ON APNEABOARD.COM SHOULD NOT BE CONSIDERED AS MEDICAL ADVICE. ALWAYS SEEK THE ADVICE OF A PHYSICIAN BEFORE SEEKING TREATMENT FOR MEDICAL CONDITIONS, INCLUDING SLEEP APNEA. INFORMATION POSTED ON THE APNEA BOARD WEB SITE AND FORUMS ARE PERSONAL OPINION ONLY AND NOT NECESSARILY A STATEMENT OF FACT.
Post Reply Post Reply


Possibly Related Threads...
Thread Author Replies Views Last Post
  [Treatment] Request for Sleep Data review compared to Sleep Study thesingingchef 2 160 03-14-2024, 05:14 PM
Last Post: thesingingchef
  adding sleep report (Wondering whether changing sleep position can "cure" apnea) NewlyDiagnosed 1 204 02-26-2024, 10:19 PM
Last Post: BoxcarPete
  Inconsistent Sleep Patterns and Confusing Sleep Studies - Please Review mperry99 17 1,359 10-14-2023, 04:20 PM
Last Post: mperry99
  [Diagnosis] Sleep deprivation vs sleep apnea - my therapy thread JRNfromAZ 2 807 08-01-2023, 02:43 PM
Last Post: JRNfromAZ
  Sleep apnea and CPAP use and it’s effect on HRV and Sleep Quaility tinyobject 1 1,011 01-21-2023, 10:37 AM
Last Post: Jay51
  Random nights of short sleep due to several days mounting to too much sleep? CorruptAlligator 2 681 10-19-2022, 09:04 PM
Last Post: Lucid
  Home sleep test vs. sleep study at clinic rikkitikkitavi 14 3,199 02-18-2022, 08:46 AM
Last Post: Sleeprider


New Posts   Today's Posts


About Apnea Board

Apnea Board is an educational web site designed to empower Sleep Apnea patients.