I quit

I became a very bad insomniac on my Airsense 10 and my least invasive nasal mask. I tried, bought, struggled, for several years. I quit it all after fighting for perfection. I still tape my lips so I don't snore. I sleep on my right side and if I am caught on my back, I immediately turn on my right side again. Now I sleep 7-81/2 hours like a log. Very seldom wake up. I don't know what my AHI is anymore.. At the beginning it was 9-15 (two different tests) and a low breath of 89 for short amount of time. I guess I am a quitter but when I started I was in my 60's. Had the test because I had Afib. I am now 82 and haven't had Afib for an entire year. I know I will never quit having Afib forever. I have never died in my sleep but, what a way to go.

Baba

I have used the information at the site below with some success with insomnia. It was originated by a professor of pharmacology that was concerned about the use of sleeping pills by seniors and the incidence of falls.

Sleepwell It's no dream

BabaG: what was the nature of your insomnia? Inability to fall asleep? Or inability to stay asleep?
Either way, can you describe in more detail?

Pre PAP treatment, I fell asleep BEFORE my head hit the pillow, but would awake like clock-work every night after 3.5 hours, unable to return to sleep. I had an AHI of 83 in REM and was desaturating below 60%, so couldn’t maintain REM. I was misdiagnosed with insomnia, but fortunately never took sleeping pills, or i probably wouldn’t be here writing this. It took me 30 years to get properly diagnosed and treated.

Most people have a much higher AHI in REM than in nonREM sleep. The Average or overall AHI hides more than it reveals, sadly. I had an overall average of 19, considered moderate at the time, but during REM it was a very high 83, when I could even stay in REM which wasn’t often because I was desaturating below 60. when that happens, your body goes into alarm mode and you awake gasping with your heart pounding. That, in itself, is quite stressful and anxiety producing…..it “wires” your CNS. Being effectively repeatedly suffocated during most of the night is not just bad for your sleep, it is very stressful on your CV system and the hypoxemia is harmful to many of your organs and metabolic processes. The damage SA produces is underestimated by both the public and the policy-makers. The cardiologists “get it”, though.