Sleep Apnea Question?

It is not just weight.

There is a Body Mass Index. Im 6 foot and about 195 or so. Thats about 19 or so on the BMI, slightly over. But no where near what values that trigger a sent to apnea lab.

I have no sleep cycle and roam at night like a owl. People drop into bed dead at this hour and Im just getting started. At some point heart failure early will transition and start demanding oxygen at night. There is no sleep CPAP machine big enough to supply that problem which will take me out of this world in a couple years or so. No worries. It's not a problem. Hospice will kick in when it's time.

YOU WILL get tired on the wheel rolling the miles away, that is where stamina kicks in and a little bit of can do mixed with being wise enough to freaking stop somewhere and get a dam nap in that berth even if it is 2 hours. You can do all sorts of things to keep awake a while. But eventually your brain WILL go to sleep right there at 70 mph with your eyes wide open in dreaming. Im not trying to scare you.

There are people here who have done sleep labs. Keep in mind you will not get to lay round sleeping for three days. You will be wired, observed, poked, prodded and so on. It's not for me. Call me old fashioned.

 

Some people are just overworked and tired. Doesn't mean they need to go to some sleep lab. I'm a overweight myself and luckily haven't been targeted for it knock on wood. But I'm looking at real hard at taking a paycut and maybe a four day week to get myself back down. The crooked work schedule I'm on has me running ragged and after nearly ten years working twelve hour or more shifts, it's high time to throw out the drag chute on that one. All else fails, maybe we could get a job as lab techs at these snooze labs!!

 

At night, I can't breath through my nose, nasal membrane swell, so I have to breathe through my mouth. I wake up, and I don't think I get deep enough sleep. Is that sleep apnea? It is a nasal blockage, not throat blockage.

Anyways, I'm often tired, and can't seem to get enough sleep.

 

Sleep apnea is when you stop breathing for 10 seconds. That's called a EVENT or AHI. What they do it count how many a person has per hour. 1-4 is considered normal for everyone. 5-15 is Mild 15-30 is moderate 30+ is severe sleep apnea. 30 time per hour at 10 seconds each it 300 seconds of not breathing every hour 300/ by 60 seconds is 5 minutes of not breathing every hour your sleeping. Try holding your breath for 5 minutes and see how you feel.

You brain knows you not breathing and is trying to save you life all night because you not breathing. So your eye are closed you think your sleeping. You brain is up all night running a marathon trying to keep you breathing or waking you up. Here's the part people don't understand you not waking up and sitting up in bed. Your brain never goes into REM sleep because it's in fight or flight mode all night. Your brain will even start to tell you body to pump adrenaline into you trying to wake you up. That's why people with sleep apnea also have crazy dream a lot.

So you wake in the morning feeling like your tired or maybe like you been running a marathon all night. That's because you brain has been you just have no idea because you think you were sleeping. So you get up start driving and maybe 4-6 hour later you ready for a nap or most guys just need a soda or coffee or candy bar. Something for a little extra energy.

We're the crazy part as truck drivers we are all told sleeping while waiting to load or unload is a good thing. It's not because we should not be so tired we can sleep on demand after sleeping all night.

 

At a sleep center you are wired up to a sensor harness. A good tech can wire you up in 20 to 40 minutes.

You are observed via infrared camera.

The only time they come into the room is to a) unhook you from the sensor interface if you have to go piss, or b) if they see by the readings that you're waking up again, and if they have enough data, (I think four hours minimum) they come in to tell you they have enough tape, and you can either try to get more sleep, or unhook and go home. Takes 15 minutes to unhook ya, you take a shower to get the adhesive out of your hair, and off ya go.

I agree that forcing it on drivers is b------t. But if ya need it, ya need it. Unfortunately, there's a lot of misinformation by people who have never been through the testing.

I, myself, would automatically get tested due to my BMI. I'm not exactly in fighting shape, but I'm no Wal-Mart Waddler either. Turns out I've had sleep apnea since before I even THOUGHT of driving a truck. I've been using CPAP for 10 years, and without it I'd be in tough shape. YMMV.

 

Respiratory therapist or ECG technician cross-trains to that job. Probably sooner or later it will become a "sleep lab tech" job, send you to community college for a semester to learn how to hook up the gear, so they can use you "on call per diem" and pay you $10.50/hr for hours actually in the lab (no on-call pay)....

 

I was looking at other health careers outside of the atypical, RN path. Respiratory Therapist is quite rare, but so are the CC programs and the clinical sites that usually require lengthy travel. Still, the money isn't too bad though. Not slave wage/second job as a crook fast food worker, not high as an RN, but right in the middle!!

 

Yeah, I've known some RTs, it's a pretty rigorous program, in the same way nursing school is. Apparently there's some sub-specialties in RT, also.