Sleep Issues

[Jim Jackson]

Steve Flattem made a comment in his post on Mini's accident that got me to thinking. (Mini - not saying this has anything to do with you, but Steve's remark made me feel like sharing my experience with this issue in case others might benefit..) Like Steve, I have sleep apnea and sleep with a Cpap machine. I had no idea I had this problem. During a routine visit, I was grumbling to my Doc about getting old and being tired all the time. He sent me in for a sleep study. The next morning the technician asked me how I slept and I told her about like usual -- i woke up 4 or 5 times. She said actually, out of 359 minutes of sleep, i woke up 260 times!!! And I had no idea... Understand, you are "clinically awake" which is different than what we think of as awake; however, it disrupts your rest dramatically and puts your heart at great risk. I was probably only getting about 2 hours rest a night at best. Sorry for the length, and don't want to sound like I'm on a soap box, but my point is anyone can suffer from this and not know it, so if this helps just one person ..... there, I shared....

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Good info. know yourself, know your limits....even if it is not medical. It is physically impossibe for me to sleep once I get behind the wheel. I don't know why. I once drove for 3 days straight. Never got tired once. Slept for 2 days after it was over though.



TOXIC

 

[Bill McElroy]

I can't relax in vehicles either....drove 15 hrs to Beaver Lk and was just fine upon arrival. (My butt was a little sore, but I was not sleepy!) Drove 12hrs back and forth to VA. with no problems...9hrs down to KY Lk, no problem.....but I can relate to Mini's incident too,..I've been on the water all day with sun beating down on me and had to drive 3hrs home,... It's tough to do!! Accidents can happen FAST and they're never "expected!!"...Be careful out there!!!

 

[gone bye bye]

This accident happened five days after driving home (Detroit) from Houston. I think I know when to stop, when I am tired....this one just snuck up on me on a road with no shoulder. Believe me it wont happen again.



Mini

 

[Jim Jackson]

My post is not about driving, and again, Mini, it's not directed at your accident. I am not in any way associating what happened to you with sleep issues, falling asleep while driving or making any other assumption of what caused your accident. Steve's comment just got me to thinking about sharing the information with everyone that any one of us can suffer severe sleep deprivation and not know it and it really does damage your heart. I wish I would have caught mine sooner.... But again, John, this isn't meant to be associated with your post and I apologise if my timing isn't the best....

 

[Jim B]

Jim

You make a good point. Last year my doctor noticed i was very tired during a routine visit. After talking with him i realised i wasnt getting enough QUALITY sleep. I was getting 8 hours but i was waking up all the time and wasnt well rested like i should be. someone my age shouldnt be tired like i was. It was something i never really thought about before but my doctor opened my eyes a bit. He suggestged i try getting a new mattress because mine was old(something i never thought about) and see if that helped, if not he would have me do a sleep study to find out what was wrong. i ended up buying a tempur-pedic mattress and the difference is huge. My friends thought i was on crack for spending upwards of 3 grand on a mattress but i now get the best sleep i have ever had and i have never felt better.

 

[Pierre Voisine]

Mini, I don't think the guys are questioning if you know your limits, I can relate, I can usually drive for hours, but after a full day on the water it's very different. After you posted I was wondering how many times I could have done that too. People don't realize how much a day on the water (especially a tournament) can take out of you....I'm worth nothing after a T day. you're a lucky man. I've seen so many accidents thourgh my tmie as a firefighter, and one thing is for sure, you can never tell who's going to walk away and who won't. Sometimes in the worse wrecks people walk away unscratched (such as yourself) but then a minor fender bender will leave multiple deaths....don't ever think there's no one out there looking over..

 

[Terry Heydt]

As if such health issues aren't enough, try sleeping with a wife who SLEEP WALKS when she's stressed, and tries to "act out" things from work in her "sleep". If that sounds bad, consider also that she is a trauma nurse! She's even woken me up after a day on the lake "fishing" in bed! (I know I just left myself open on that one...). She had the sleep studies, and was diagnosed with "somnambulism", a disruption in her REM sleep. Nothing like waking up to seeing your wife leaning over you saying, "Did you get your I.V. yet??"

 

[Texas Transplant]

Terry,



Just after my wife and I were married, during a time when she started a new job, I woke up one night. My wife had the light on, my arm in her hands, with a bic pen, getting ready to draw blood. Which was the new technique that she was learning at the hospital.



Will bring you full awake in an instant.



Tex

 

[Rob LaMoy]

I know Buzz sleeps with a machine. When he doesn't have it, you'd swear he's going to choke to death. No joke, when we drove to Detroit, we pulled over about 45 minutes from Neeley's at 5:00 am, figured Rhonda didn't want a wake up call, and got an hours nap. I was dead tired but woke up a half dozen times to make sure he was still breathing! Snoring is a MASSIVE understatement. As for me, I can fall asleep anywhere, anytime, ask my wife! LOL I drive better at night, the sun tires my eyes and I get drowsy. After a full day tourney, coming home in the afternoon from a launch anymore than 2 hours away, and I HAVE to stop to take a nap.

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Do what you gotta Rob....I pulled into a truckstop at 2am with my son in a u-haul and decided to "nap"....6 hours later I woke up. I know, I know, I said I can drive forever but IF I stop, I can sleep. If I choose not to, I can do that also.



TOXIC

 

[Jim Jackson]

I use the full mask too Cecil. I ran the humidifier for about a year and then took it off because I kept getting sinus infections that I was afraid was caused by not keeping everything sterile enough. It does dry your mouth out really bad, but I was lucky and got so used to it that now I won't even try to go to sleep without it -- even for a short nap..

I understand those that have wives with sleep issues also. I have the same situation. Mine has insomnia part of the time and all those other goofy behavior things the rest of the time. A couple of years back she took the entire flight of stairs from top to bottom in one step. I think she was trying to turn left into the guest bathroom and went right instead. Lucky she only broke a toe.

So now on top of all our own sleep issues, we have to sleep with one eye open watching out for sleep walkers, nurses with bic pens, etc.... Ain't life fun??...

 

[Dan J.]

One of the new guys that came with us this year on our Canada trip sleeps with a CPAP machine. He told us about the month and a half he was in the hospital for falling asleep at the wheel. He was diagnosed with sleep apnea (sp?) and was tested, prompting the machine. Although the unit was loud, he was ten times louder without it. I'd rather have the machine noise than lose a good friend and family man to the apnea or something due to being tired.

 

[Gene B]

Tox, it's cruel to keep your son in a U-Haul.



Gene

 

[Scott Hammer TOXIC]

Ha, ha, ha, Gene, I let him ride upfront some of the time. Somebody has to be back there to catch the boxes when I turn corners!!



TOXIC

 

[Mark Hofman]

My father-in-law had a reputation of being able to fall asleep EVERYWEHRE. Early family photos have pictures of him sleeping in lawn chairs, at picnic benches, and even one of him asleep on the back of a horse while RIDING it. It used to be a big family joke.



Then he went for a sleep study and after less than an hour, they woke him up and set him up on a machine. It was the best thing that's happened to him in many years. He's more mellow, has a better sense of humor and is more active. The only problem was that his mask was first fitted with a nosepiece for a small child. His honker is definitely not the size of a childs!



I've thought about getting tested myself. I had a 24-hour Holter monitor rigged to me once, and it revealed that while sleeping my heart rate can drop to 27 beats per minute. I'll quit breathing. My wife has started waking me more and more for snoring and it seems like I'm always tired. I can fall asleep in five minutes flat, but naps don't seem to have any effect.

 

[Jim Jackson]

Mark!!! Please don't wait!!! Talk to your Doc about getting tested soon!!! It's a really small thing compared to the risk you are at. The reason they woke your father-in-law up is becuase the test protocall says if your blood ox drops below 85% during the test you are at major risk of a heart attack right then-- so they don't even finish the test without putting the mask on you right away. Mine was dropping to 85.5% and I had no idea. This thing is a silent killer, just like blood pressure can be. The difference it has made in my life is priceless.... (I know -- I'm on my soap box again..)

 

[Steve Flattem]

Sorry to open the can of bait...but...sleep apnea is a real problem [again, Mini, no reflection]...



Reading about Mini's accident and 'falling asleep' triggered my personal thoughts + hey, I'm a guy, a big guy. I don't need to go to a doctor...I just snore...wrong...my wife convinced me to get the sleep study and find out. I had similar results to Jim J...in bed 'asleep' for 7 hours, only getting 2+ hours of real sleep...dying a thousand times of asphyixiation (sp).



I guess I was subconsciously thinking of mentioning to others on the board I had an almost event similar to Minis (actually several...every Sunday afternoon on the way home). The thought may have been to put the information out there for all to think about...



With Mini's extreme close call, we should all just think a bit about how precious life is and what we can do to live longer.



Me, personally, I need to lose a bunch of pounds to live longer...maybe a treadmill in the boat...converting effort to electricity to run the fish finder.



Go fish.