talldude

My wife threatened to buy me a shirt with that on it. She and the dogs turned up missing about 1:00 AM the other night. I found them in the spare bedroom.

Mr Danw

If it is that bad it is probably a symptom of an underlying medical problem. You may want to get it checked out.

Tom Stormcrowe

It's called sleep apnea. Very common if you are a bit overweight.

talldude

Yeah, it's a bit of apnea. I have a rather narrow palate. I'm about 15% body fat so not really overweight.

takingcontrol

trust me get it checked out, get cpap. It will change your life.

turtlewoman

I have used a CPAP for the last 8 years. It was the greatest thing that ever happened to me when I got it. Now I sleep soundly, no snoring and i don't wake up with headaches anymore. Get a sleep study, you'll be glad you did!

talldude

Anyone ever try one of those mouthpiece things you see advertised on TV?

takingcontrol

yes, gimmick

Sportpilot

+1 for the sleep study and CPAP (Auto) DO IT!!!

Hexenmeister

Can't somebody just be a loud snorer and not have sleep apnea?

I always thought sleep apnea was when you stopped breathing as well.

LandKurt

Loud snoring doesn't prove you have sleep apnea, that's why a sleep test is needed where they monitor your actual breathing as you sleep to see if you have any events. My sleep test wasn't great because I didn't sleep well all wired up at the test facility. They caught no actual apnea events but did get some hyponea events (reduced or obstructed breathing). That was enough to justify a CPAP machine for me.

I think I'm a borderline case with just mild sleep apnea. The CPAP machine hasn't made a big difference in my life. I continue to use it though because it helps my wife sleep more soundly without my loud snoring. And I sleep more soundly because she doesn't jostle me to get me to stop snoring.

Hexenmeister

I can relate to this.

However, I'm not sure it's worth having to wear this contraption to bed each night.

Tom Stormcrowe

SNoring is always a symptom of apnea. It doesn't mean you actually have apnea, though, bt it's a very strong indicator you do.

They also have nasal insert masks now that are much less bulky and more comfortable than the full face mask shown. That's actually a pretty old style mask.

My CPAP has also been a godsend. Apnea also drives up your blood pressure, interupts the epinephrine cycle for your kidneys, affects your memory, creates depression, causes an enlarged right ventricle of the heart, and so on through a long chain and shortens your life. With all that said, is it still not worth it to have it checked?

wristwister

Here's an interesting story. I was diagnosed with sleep apnea a couple years ago, and like others have said that CPAP machine was a Godsend. Now I've never been way overweight, but probably carrying a little more weight than I should. Well, a few months ago I got my bike and took up commuting to work a few days a week. So far I've lost about 15 pounds and guess what? I've been cometely off the CPAP for over a month now! No snoring, no stopped breathing. This is GREAT! I'll keep that machine at my bedside for a little longer before I declare victory over the apnea, but so far so good!

Hill-Pumper

My wife just had the sleep study done last night. Her breathing would only stop for 9 seconds at a time, which is 1 second short of needing the machine according to the insurance company. The doctor still thinks she could benefit from her getting one, so he is going to try to get the insurance to pay for one. He also recommended that she drop at least 20 pounds and try the mouth piece thing. He said that the mouth piece was about 50 percent effective where as the machine is 97 percent. So I guess we will try to find the mouth thing for now until we can find out if she can get the machine. There are a couple of up sides to this though. First, it motivated her to get back on her weight loss(she was doing great, but stopped). Second, she wants to get a bike to add to her walking as exercise. We went and looked at bikes today for her, which just killed me to have to do.

mtclifford

Sleep Apnea is what drove me to lose over 175 pounds. I couldn't use the CPAP because it drove me crazy, I felt like I was breathing with SCUBA gear. After losing the wieght I sleep fine, no CPAP, no sleep medications. They told me if I couldn't use a CPAP it was either surgery or losing weight. I was more scared of the knife than I was of diet and exercise.

I will tell you apnea sucks, I was living my life like a zombie, never getting enough sleep, everything was effected, my work, my social life, my love life, it was pretty miserable.

hardd1

my wife accuses me of snoring...gotta be BS, I never hear it

Kel15233

I was told I have very mild apnea but my doc thinks I have the headaches of a more severe level. I wake up with them and they don't go away.. been dealing with essentially one constant headache with a day here and there were I don't have one. Like today.. so much to do but am pretty useless. I go for the sleep study with a cpap in a couple weeks - I so hope that will help.

scrapmetal

Excellent excuse to have your own bedroom.

Slow Banshee

I believe that I have sleep apnea, but have been putting it off to get checked. My wife has been using a machine for years and it was a life saver for her. She couldn't stay awake, it was affecting her work, would get colds/flue easily from being tired all the time. Once we were coming back from visiting family 30 miles away, she was driving when I noticed the car was wandering side to side while going down a 3 lane highway, looked over, my wife was asleep at the wheel. I woke her, took over the driving, and made her go see a doctor. Not only can you die in your sleep, but the sleep deprivation can get you other ways as well.

takingcontrol

Your wife was lucky, It took me rolling a company pickup for me to "wake up". I am very fortunate I didn't kill someone. In retrospect, just realizing how oblivious I was gives me the chills.

Sumosized

Amen to that. CPAP absolutely rules the night!!!!! Been using one for 5 years now. Very effective and has changed my life.

Cyclist343511

The first sleep study proved that I had sevre sleep apnea 9 years ago, at 324 lbs. I would wake up 96 times an hour. The pressure was set at 18psi and I finally got to sleep. Sleep depravation will help you put up with the little discomfort of the mask. I sometimes forget that I have it on my face now. (But, my wife thinks I sound like Darth Vadar!)

My recent sleep test showed minimal apnea. They set the pressure down to 8psi. 4psi would have stopped the apnea, the additional pressure stopped the snoring! The heavy breathing I do on the bike is helping!

I just ordered a new mask. The last one tore and I had to duct tape it to my face to make it work.