My Better Sleep Journal

[Himm]

Thank you so much for your support. I knew if I put my honest focus into this that I would get results.

Patiently waiting for my energy levels to rise.

[Himm]

Ugh more CAs and highest AHI was 10 last night. I really don't know why. Should i lower my minimum pressure some more? Am I getting better or worse? So hard to tell sometimes. 

I kept feeling myself stop breathing as well. I think for 30-60 minutes I experienced a cycle of just about to fall asleep, not breathing, then waking up to take a deep breath. 

I feel like it sounds worse than it is. I'm just lying in bed while hoping to go to sleep, and then I notice "oh f***, why haven't I breathed in yet?" and then I take a deep breath to *restart* myself or something. 

It's not nearly as distressing as waking up choking and dreams of drowning, but still annoying. I was genuinely tired and wanted to sleep. 

If it matters, on the days I accidently fall asleep without it I don't have any discomfort during or after, and don't think I snore audibly, but I do tend to wake up much sooner than I wish I could. It's only when I use the machine do I have the non-breathing issue, yet at the same time I sleep longer on average with the machine than without it. 

       

[Dormeo]

From your description, it sounds as though you had some transition centrals. These can happen as the neurochemical systems for awake breathing hand off to the systems for sleep breathing. Aside from being really annoying, they’re nothing to worry about. I’d suggest leaving your settings where they are for another night or two before considering a change.

[Himm]

"Transition centrals" are an excellent way to summarize what I've been experiencing. I'll keep my settings the same for the rest of the week and see what happens. Thanks for comforting me.

[Himm]

And the mysterious transition centrals have disappeared just as quickly as they appeared. So strange.  

       

What else do you guys think I should be improving on besides sleeping earlier and continuing my cycling? I admit I still haven't finished reading that part of the wiki, yet. Maybe today. One of my goals is that I would love at least a week of getting in bed before 11PM.

A recent victory: because of updating my diet and ramping up my cycling miles, I lost 3.5 pounds in a week. That's huge for me. I'm FINALLY losing weight again! More proof that I'm getting my sleep apnea under control!

I'm still not as energetic as I'd like to be, but I think I'm slowly getting there. This month I've cycled 110 outdoor miles with 6100 feet of gained elevation. May do a 300 mile challenge next month. 

And at least I'm not sleeping like sh*t anymore. Even sleeping on the couch isn't as bad as it used to be a few months ago.

[Dormeo]

You are making such great progress -- I'm really impressed! All the more impressive given that you've had to roll with some punches in these recent weeks. Contragulations!

Just keep on doing what you're doing. Outdoor exercise during the day. Mindful eating. Working toward a regular sleep schedule. Not letting screens eat your brain.

The experts on this stuff say it's as important to establish a regular get-up time as it is to establish a regular bedtime. I just throw that out there. And do try to leave room for 7-8 hours of actual sleep.

Keep us posted, would you? And again, congratulations!

[Himm]

I will. Thank you for your support. Maybe once every couple of days or weekly.

[Himm]

Random things I'm happy about: 

1. Since changing my diet and eating much more red meat, My sleep is much longer and deeper.  I now try to stay over 150g of protein a day, ideally hitting 200 per day. So easy with steak. Knocks me out like nothing else. And when I hit the bed, I know I'm going to fall asleep generally quickly and stay asleep. It's not a maybe or possibly like how I used to feel. 
   
2. And combined with my sleep apnea machine, I haven't woken up at all during the night in probably more than 2 weeks, nor do I feel like I'm waking up earlier than I want to.
   
3. I've been cycling more, which I'd like to believe also helps me sleep better. I'm not overdoing it. I like where I'm at right now (50 miles a week) and I think I'll stay there. I'm not training for anything right now. If I want to do extra I can. I try to stick to mornings for the vitamin d. I wonder what my levels are now. I was extremely low when I was last checked months ago. 
   
4. Related to cycling, yesterday was one of my strongest cycling days yet. I felt great the whole time. barely any soreness and I kept up a pretty fast-for-me pace to try and keep up with the group. I definitely believe my consistent sleep the past few days is one of the biggest reasons why I felt so great.
   
5. My dreams are incredibly vivid and much longer than they've ever been. I remember details about them hours later, too. All good dreams, no nightmares. 
   
6. For the past few days at least, I've been in bed longer than my usual 7 hours. My daily hours have been really surprising me. 9 hours? 10 hours?? I still feel tired when I wake up and put off getting out of bed. Maybe this means I need even more sleep than I think. I'll have to get in bed earlier to make up for it. 
   
7. Proposed some updates to the wiki in a different thread. Will join and add them myself. May do some more updates as I peruse through it on my own time. 
   

   
   

[Dormeo]

What a fine list!

[UnicornRider]

After possibly years of accumulated sleep deprivation, it could take a long time for the body to recover. I encourage people to take on a whole life and life style assessment to address the body with more than just *PAP therapy.

   It sounds as if you are heading in the right direction, fresh fruits and vegetables are important for the body's health also.

   Your Statistics, in the Left Hand Panel, look very respectable.

   You should be able to rescale your Flow Limits and Snore Graphs for a max scaling of 0.50. That will bring out more of the minor events for your comparison to the Flow Rate graph in zoomed views.

   Do you utilize the Notes tab in the Daily view, to chase events in a zoomed view? That really helped me recognize the obstructive events developing and realize I needed to make minor changes to my bedding, mask and pre-sleep routine.