Sounds like sleep apnea to me. I did not have dreams like that, but I did have a hard time arranging my neck and head to sleep -- my neck has gotten fat, and I would say that I felt like I was drowning in my own fat.
But I wouldn't have actually done anything about it, except for the fact that last summer (2003) when Ben and Nick took our annual vacation to Florida, we stayed in a cabin with only two bedrooms so took turns having an entire bedroom or sharing. Nick and Ben both told me that I snored, which I knew, but that it sounded like I stopped breathing.
I have Kaiser HMO, so started the ball rolling in September 2003, but it took forever, first to be screened, then to be tested, and the test was positive. Basically you sleep with a machine that has leads all over your body, or you try to sleep, and it records whether you stop breathing in your sleep, and I did stop breathing many times an hour, especially during REM.
The test can be done at home.
But by that time I was sure I had it because I was so exhausted I was zonked all the time, just a zombie. Miserable.
Then they send you home with a trial C-PAP, just to see if you can tolerate it, and get relief from it.
I got my own machine almost exactly a year ago. It's a struggle to sleep with, the mask has to be tight, so if you have claustrophobia (I don't) you might not be able to adjust. My nose gets stuffy and dried out, so I have to use nose spray, or else the machine has a built in humidifier.
I bought my own top of the line machine, $1500! It's variable speed and pressure with a feedback mechanism, so adjusts itself all night, which I don't notice. I do notice the mask shifting, and the silly tube wrapping around the pillow, so wake up several times a night to unwind the tube or jiggle the mask, but I don't mind, because I do get much, much, much better quality of sleep. I don't actually wake up all the way, just a tiny bit, and then go right back to sleep.
Chris and I have had separate bedrooms for years because we both snore. We share the bedroom when we have company or on a trip. I no longer snore, he says, and the machine just makes a quiet sighing noise. I look weird, sort of like a scuba diver with a hose, but it doesn't bother him. He still snores, and I keep waking him up by poking him to make him roll onto his side, so we still have separate bedrooms. BTW, if he uses nose spray the snoring is tolerable but I still poke him in the side, just not as often.
One nice thing -- when it's cold, I can completely cover up from head to toe with blankets and pillows, and still breathe.
My sister's mother in law, who is a skinny tiny thing, has really bad sleep apnea, so it's not just a function of weight. Her sleep apnea isn't obstructive, like mine is, it's neurological. She uses a C-PAP and some kind of alarm that beeps at her if she stops breathing, because it could kill her. |
