gemfyre | Eternal tiredness - turns out I wasn't just being lazy

I got a sleep test done. Turns out I stop breathing around 80 times PER HOUR while I'm sleeping. Thus, I never get a good block of deep sleep because it's always disturbed by my brain going, "mmmm sleeeeeep....", "hey, I need some oxygen here!" *snore* *gasp* *fall back to sleep* - repeat all night long.

So I now have a ridiculously expensive CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) machine on hire to see if that works. It's the general solution for mild to severe (mine is quite severe) sleep apnoea.

Well, first you have to breathe through your nose while using it. Hah!! I haven't breathed unconsciously through my nose since forever. Constant childhood colds put an end to that. As soon as I stop thinking about breathing I revert to my mouth. And 99% of the time when I do breathe through my nose I don't feel like I'm getting enough air. Apparently my nasal passages aren't terribly unusual, maybe a little narrow. So, I don't know if my nose is just always blocked all the time because of colds/hayfever/whatever or if it's just stupid nasal passages. My jaw is set back slightly (odd, all that orthodontic work when I was a teenager and it was never mentioned) and that makes one prone to having their tongue and soft palette fall back and block the airways when you're laying down - hoorah for dodgy evolution! Being overweight doesn't help either. Shit, losing weight will solve a bunch of problems, but it's HARD and slow going and a bit soul destroying so I'm just happy if I don't gain weight right now.

So anyway, the CPAP works by constantly blowing air in, so it keeps that passage from your face to your lungs open. I've started with basic 'nasal pillows' (that name is hilarious), which are the least obtrusive kind of mask and I must admit - with air being blown in, I can actually breathe through my nose and feels fantastic. It even has a nifty little humidifier so maybe my constantly itchy/sore nose will settle down now.

When actually trying to sleep the whole headgear-attached-to-a-tube thing can be a smidge annoying, especially when I want to lay on my side. The machine itself makes a very soft hum that gets slightly higher pitched as I breathe out. Apparently this is a fandangled one that adjusts the air pressure in as required to suit my breathing. Cheaper machines work at a constant pressure, but are just as effective. I sometimes will open my mouth to breathe because it just feels weird otherwise, but then it stops working properly because the pressure is buggered up. But overall I think I'm not doing too bad. This morning I had to quickly rip the thing off before I sneezed into it.

I'm still feeling tired in the morning, but it's only day two. What I am noticing is the lack of disgusting morning mouth. I get up and don't feel the need to immediately rinse my mouth out, it feels moist and comfortable (wow, that sounds dodgy). I still drool on the pillow, even with my mouth closed which is a bit of a bummer, I was hoping the whole breathing-through-the-nose would fix that issue. But now my gums might be less sensitive as they aren't drying out every night.

So now it's follow up appointments to make the sure the machine works, a follow up sleep test, lots of money being spent (I was going to buy some new boots after my initial follow-up, but that was not to be, I spent $700+ on medical stuff instead *cries*) But hopefully my sleep will improve. I'm looking forward to dreaming more.