03-21-2023, 10:31 PM
The brain is on guard
Hello all,
Does anybody know how long it takes for the brain to relax and have a long deep sleep? When I use my ASV, I average 3-4 hours of deep sleep at night (measured with the Apple Watch using the AutoSleep app), and I wake up feeling great. When I sleep without my ASV, no more apneas and oxygen level stays above 90% all night, I have 40 minutes to one hour of deep sleep and I wake up tired. It feels like my brain learned to be on guard and not going into deep sleep for long periods due to experiencing positional apneas for more than 30 years.
I have not been officially diagnosed with apnea, but had all the symptoms of it since I was a child. I had experienced 10-15 oxygen drops at night (measured by O2 ring), and some were as low as 75%. While waiting to see a sleep specialist and have a sleep exam (5 months total), I purchased the ASV. At the beginning, my AHI with ASV was around 2.5. Once I started using a cervical collar and mouth tapping it went to 0. To my surprise though, I stopped experiencing oxygen drops at night by using a cervical collar and mouth tapping alone, without ASV.
In total, I slept only two nights without my ASV in the last month, and I am wondering how long will it take for my brain to stop being on guard when I sleep and have the same quality of sleep that I have while using ASV.
Does anybody know how long it takes for the brain to relax and have a long deep sleep? When I use my ASV, I average 3-4 hours of deep sleep at night (measured with the Apple Watch using the AutoSleep app), and I wake up feeling great. When I sleep without my ASV, no more apneas and oxygen level stays above 90% all night, I have 40 minutes to one hour of deep sleep and I wake up tired. It feels like my brain learned to be on guard and not going into deep sleep for long periods due to experiencing positional apneas for more than 30 years.
I have not been officially diagnosed with apnea, but had all the symptoms of it since I was a child. I had experienced 10-15 oxygen drops at night (measured by O2 ring), and some were as low as 75%. While waiting to see a sleep specialist and have a sleep exam (5 months total), I purchased the ASV. At the beginning, my AHI with ASV was around 2.5. Once I started using a cervical collar and mouth tapping it went to 0. To my surprise though, I stopped experiencing oxygen drops at night by using a cervical collar and mouth tapping alone, without ASV.
In total, I slept only two nights without my ASV in the last month, and I am wondering how long will it take for my brain to stop being on guard when I sleep and have the same quality of sleep that I have while using ASV.
It's not the happiest truth to learn, but masking up will soon become just another step in getting ready for bed. 
