I did a sleep study, and have used a CPAP for something like 4 years now. Completely changed my life. I don't even take a 30 minute nap without it.

Some bits of advice:

1.) There are a lot of different styles of mask, and some are awful. Your sleep center may or may not have the whole variety for you to try, but you shouldn't necessarily assume that a CPAP won't work for you just because one mask is bad. The one that worked for me is called the Dreamwear Nasal Pillow. You can buy it (and others) online if you want to try some out that your sleep center doesn't carry.

2.) My upper lip sweats a little with the silicone pressed right against it all night, and after a few nights it will give me a rash. Most people's skin isn't as sensitive, but my workaround is to cut a tiny little strip of fabric off an old set of sheets and just stick it between my lip and the mask. Sometimes I lose it in my sleep, and I just cut a new one for the next night.

3.) One of the things that can happen with a CPAP, especially if you need a high pressure to keep your airway open, is a certain amount of air can accidentally get pushed down your throat into your stomach, and you can wake up bloated or with gas pains. This will happen much less if you sleep on your left side, because your stomach opening is on the right--this position keeps it pointed upward, and allows the air to come back out instead of getting trapped. I also keep little chewable Gas-X tablets by the bed just in case.

4.) Again, to reiterate, it changed my life. I wake up actually feeling like I slept. And if I accidentally doze off on the couch or whatever without it, I wake up feeling like complete shit, and am reminded how it used to feel every time I woke up. They are very unsexy, but very much worth it.

Yes the C-Pap changed my life for the better.

Clodfobble, and others, fargon?

What exactly comprises a sleep study.  Presumably I'm sleeping, and someone/thing is studying me.  Beyond that (no, I haven't googled it) lies a dark unknown, conducive to sleep, perhaps, but I ain't goin in there if I can't see there, says part of my denialbrain.

What was the actual sleep study like?

TIA

The "brain waves" part is the big thing--they do a full EEG, meaning they take about 30-45 minutes when you get there attaching a bunch of wired electrodes to your scalp with special glue that's the consistency of wall spackle, and then you try to sleep in an unfamiliar bed with all these wires coming off your head, plus an O2 meter on your finger or toe, plus a little tube on your face that will tell them if/when you stop breathing. It's not strictly necessary to take the next day off from work, but you will not get a good night's sleep. But as long as you drift off for a few hours here and there, they'll get what they need.

Then, assuming they find that you did stop breathing for any significant period of time, you have to come back a couple weeks later for another overnight session, during which they electrode you up again, and this time you sleep with a CPAP, which the monitoring nurse will remotely adjust throughout the night to find the optimum pressure that your CPAP needs to be set at--since you want it high enough to keep your passageway open, but no higher. This is also when you can try out different mask styles. Then you do a followup appointment with the doctor to go over the results, and they actually give you your CPAP machine, set to the pressure you've been "prescribed," to take home.
 

I got my C-Pap in  one visit. And it's just like Clod dexcribed.

Clodfobble wrote:

It's not strictly necessary to take the next day off from work, but you will not get a good night's sleep. 

I slept fine, but they did kick me out at oh dark thirty, and I missed my exit on my commute to work because it looked so different at that hour.
 

Just got my 2nd machine.  Air sense 11.  Nasal pillows.  Sleep like a baby.

My apnea was the cause of high blood pressure and congestive heart failure about 6 years ago.  My fatness was the cause of the apnea.

Much better now.  Less fat, and using a cpap every night.

Do it.

I found hooked up to all those wires, laying on my back in a strange bed, uncomfortable and hardly conducive to normal sleep.

A Brit neuroscientist David Plans says:
​Sweet spot for falling asleep from 10 to 11 p.m.
12% greater risk of heart disease falling asleep 11 to 11:59 PM.
25% greater risk of heart disease falling asleep after midnight.
24% greater risk of heart disease falling asleep before 10 PM.
Women were more affected by the after midnight and Men by too early

Now the explanation is bullshit, saying your circadian rhythm your inner clock is violated.
First of all he's making the assumption everyone's clock is the same which isn't true.
He appears to be making the assumption your clock can't be changed, and anyone who has worked shift work
for any length of time can tell you it can.
Now if I habitually go to sleep at 2 AM and have to get up at 6 to make a living, then yes, I'm doing damage.
But Going to sleep at 2AM and don't have to get up until 10AM what's the difference from sleeping 10PM to 6 AM?

This may be a case of NBC new grabbing highlights and sending a distorted message.
FOX isn't the only one that screws up the stories.
https://www.nbcnews.com/health/aging/falling-asleep-time-may-safest-heart-new-study-shows-rcna4887
.

That's good it only gets better from here. My C-Pap changed my life.

xoxoxoBruce wrote:

This may be a case of NBC new grabbing highlights and sending a distorted message.
.

Message is only distorted when one does not read (comprehend) ten plus paragraphs.  Unfortunately, many do not have the attention span to see a major fact in that report:  

The new study didn't look at wake-up times along with sleep onset, but the American Heart Association’s primary prevention guidelines suggest that people who sleep less than six hours are at risk for hypertension, which is a major cardiovascular risk factor, she said.

Many who go to sleep late must still get up at the same time due to sun, noise, occupation, and other factors.  Many who go to sleep too late need an alarm clock to wake them up.  If getting sufficient sleep, one wakes up without that alarm.  Study, apparently, did not mention that relevant factor.  And so, did the reporter overlook that possible factor in the report?

The report also says:  

Still, she said, the findings need to be taken with a grain of salt. The new research shows an association but doesn't prove that falling asleep either later or earlier than the hour from 10 to 11 p.m. causes heart disease. Other factors may be the real culprits, such as stress, anxiety and depression, she said.

  So the report did not make any conclusions.  The report only said indications exist that something significant might be discovered here.  All sixteen paragraphs must be read.

Of course, those extremists typically never get byond a paragraph of two.  Would then make conclusions from what was only a summary of possibilities.

Another example of why those, educated by tweets and soundbytes, can lie to themselves.
 

Last edited by tw (2/12/2022 3:39 pm)

The other primates sleep more than we do,
Maybe because their only pressure not to is danger or hunger.
They don't even have to get up to pee.