Biguglygremlin

I have no medical training and am not recommending anyone try new treatments or cease existing medical treatments without the full support of their doctor.

This is a continuation of a previous thread:

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD)

I created this thread because, for me,

Dexamphetamine stops REM Sleep Behaviour Disorder (RBD)

Confession time:

I have been using Dexamphetamine (leftovers from my wife's prescriptions) for decades in small quantities on occasional days to enable me to achieve difficult or demanding tasks and drive safely when extremely tired. For those applications it is very effective.

Many people who visit this forum would relate to the downward spiral of fatigue and confusion and despair associated with sleep disorders like Apnea. I have ADD, RLS, PLMD, very severe Apnea, and RBD. They are, in my view, all connected and they compound on each other in a way that is very hard to manage.

I used to have the view that waking was active and tiring but sleep was shutting down and resting. I think that was wrong. For me, both sleep and wake require time, effort, awareness, energy, motivation, and positivity.  Without those resources, I fail at both and they merge into a fractured state of in-between. Spending my days and nights neither properly asleep nor fully awake.

I considered that the purpose of Dexamphetamine was to wake up the brain and raise the level of awareness and activity as well as improve motivation and positivity. Using Dex for this purpose over the past year or so has enabled me to remain functional through the daytime despite the escalating levels of fatigue and confusion generated by deteriorating sleep patterns which have become barely survivable, leaving me lost and confused through the night and increasingly wrecked each morning.

I had hoped that by using Dex to raise my level of awareness through the day I could use the fatigue it generates to dive deeper into sleep but what I found is that the more tired I became the worse I slept and the more fragmented and disrupted my nights became until, because of all the compounding sleep and movement disorders, I was getting almost no benefit from what little sleep I could achieve.

Several weeks ago, when this degenerative cycle was quite severe, I took a Dex at 4:00 AM as a last resort to enable me to manage the hopelessness and desperation until morning, and to my surprise, I slept really well, even though it was only for 4 or 5 hours, and I woke feeling refreshed and in a state of awareness and functionality that was better than I have seen in a long time.

Since then I have used Dex every night to facilitate better sleep and awakened feeling alert and functional, without the extreme fatigue, fog, and confusion that has haunted my life in recent years. I have gone from having a number of violent RBD dreams every night to none at all in the past several weeks since I began using Dex at bedtime except twice when I forgot and woke up with violent active dreams on both occasions.

Just to be clear, this medication does not suppress movement, which seems to be the aim of standard RBD medication and it doesn't prevent dreaming. Dex keeps dreams in peaceful mode, which is how I play most computer games nowadays.

One person is hardly conclusive and several weeks is not long enough but it is the best several weeks I have had in quite a few years and I believe that it is worth further investigation.

Once again: My role in this forum has largely been rabble-rouser and antagonist. I have no medical training and am not recommending anyone try new treatments or cease existing medical treatments without the full support of their doctor.

I found a tentative solution to REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD) but I will discuss it in a new thread in case the powers that be wish to remove it.

Heavy blankets would work quite well for me, especially because I use the blanket as a kind of restraint.

REM Sleep Behavior Disorder (RBD)

Bad PLMD

I think there is need for caution though because some issues might be made worse by heavy blankets.

How Does it Work?

Diverticulitis

It will be interesting to observe how this discussion plays out because it seems to me that this forum is significantly biased in favour of Resmed and essentially blind to any real issues with Resmed machines regardless of the credibility or number of complainants.

I have rarely had serious respiratory illness since starting CPAP but when I have I cranked the pressure (fixed) up a notch and keep using the machine despite the messy congestion.

The gear can be cleaned but breathing is rather useful and if there is a time when CPAP is essential it is when congestion is at it's worst.

At those times I focus on any additional ways to keep the airways clear, like inhaling steam or using steroidal or decongestant nasal sprays.

I have also been known to enclose the intake filter in an upended pot of vapor-rub.

Coughs are probably the hardest to deal with and might be the best argument against mouth taping and perhaps even full face masks.

For me, winding the humidifier up to max would probably help a bit and certainly having effective supplies of syrup or lozenges can provide relief or at least sympathy.

I'm not sure how relevant the central apnea issue is under those circumstances but if the aim is only to achieve normal airflow to the lungs it might not be a major issue.

I am often off subject airboss27

It's more fun that way.

:)

I don't think you can depend on Covid test results, especially if the samples were taken in the early stages of the disease.

False Negative Rate of Covid Testing

Even where the test itself is reasonably accurate there can be issues with timing, collection, handling and of course, just general bungling.

Australia's population, beyond a few small clusters, has not been exposed to Covid until the past few weeks.

We had numerous documented false negatives issued recently and I know of someone locally who came home really sick and tested positive, then some days later, when the partner developed symptoms and was tested, it came back negative which is highly unlikely under the circumstances.

Another point to remember is that Omicron did not wave it's super-charged glycoproteins and make Delta disappear.

In this population Delta is alive and kicking and just getting started.

Delta is likely to do more harm in the long run than Omicron, because of the differences Sierra referred to above.

It's unlikely that I would 'consume' more than a small glass of water per night via the humidifier, allowing for wastage, and in and of itself that would not make much difference, unless it is absorbed by a different pathway (via the lungs) or somehow triggers the body to change it's processes.

Using CPAP, especially a full face mask, does alter how we sleep. I rarely slept on my back prior to CPAP. Changing sleep position could have an effect on metabolic processes especially for those of us with fitness or weight issues.

Various people express the view that CPAP reduces their nocturnal visits to the toilet. Could it be that prior to CPAP the Apnea was disturbing their sleep and during those disturbances they were more aware of bodily needs, and so voided surplus water more frequently, which enabled their bodies to process fluids more effectively? Could the issue be that CPAP, by preventing the disruptions of Apnea, can effectively facilitate overnight fluid retention?

Regardless of seeming testimonials and collective theories, serious disorders have been associate with fluid retention and, as recommended by others, the first step should always be to seek professional medical advice.

It is too easy to dismiss what we can't see or don't understand.

The things I don't understand are multiplying exponentially but I do believe, from past observations, that everything is connected.

CPAP is not a simple, innocuous process.

It has profound effects in almost every aspect of our lives.

It may be tenuous or indirect but there must be a connection.

Hi Sickntired,

This is the first time I have ever read any mention of the stretching/cramping issue and it really surprised me because I have developed that habit over the past year or two but I have been using CPAP for several years so I had concluded that it was caused by other issues related to aging.

I still like to think that I am in control so it never really occurred to me that it might actually be a symptom of some kind, just a personal idiosyncrasy.

What does concern me is that, for me, it finishes with a protracted violent tremor which is almost certainly a symptom of things to come.