Sleep Apnea Diary

Pollen really gets to me.  The yellow powder knocks me for a loop, makes my eyes itchy, and gives me the sniffles.

I’m glad this only lasts a little while each year, because it’s making using the CPAP mask more difficult.  Not a fun time.  Less mask time means less good sleep and a fuzzier head throughout the day.

The mask itself isn’t bad, but with other irritants floating around, it’s a challenge.  Back to normal after pollen season.

My wife has a hypothesis.  (Since I married a smart woman, I listen to her hypotheses.  Once in a while. )

When I heard people talk about the “immediate” difference that using the constant positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, I suppose I expected that this meant “the next day.”

The first couple of nights weren’t bad, per se, but Mr. Bluebird wasn’t on my shoulder when I woke up, that was for dang sure.  Maybe it was the fact that I was only using the machine for five to six hours the first couple of nights and would take the mask off before I was completely ready to get up for the day.  Or maybe it was the fact that it shouldn’t be an instantaneous change.  I had thought that recovering from sleep deprivation was just about instantaneous, but there may be some kind of cumulative “memory effect”, meaning that I’d need to get good sleep for a while before my body forgot that I was getting bad sleep.  Or, possibly, it could have been simply that I was getting over the flu.

Anyway, I had the mask on for over seven hours last night, and I did notice that I felt better when I finally got up.  Three days is still pretty quick to see a difference, I guess.  That, and getting a full night’s sleep is also probably part of the solution.  The mask won’t magically turn five hours of sleep into a clicking-my-heels good day.