More Sleeping

Tuesday I saw the sleep specialist. The technician had told me that she needed to record me asleep for at least two hours (for insurance purposes) before trying the CPAP, but I hadn't understood that she meant two hours asleep in the clinical, EEG sense, not just two hours I don't remember being conscious for at all. Lights out was at 10:30 and I didn't fall asleep until about 11:30. Between that time and slightly after 3AM, I was only actually asleep for 127 minutes. The little chart on which my sleep and its interruptions are displayed looks rather strange, but among other things apparently tells the doctor that I'm getting virtually no REM sleep. Doesn't that mean I should be psychotic? Apparently not. I averaged 120  "events" (apneas or hypopneas) an hour, and dozens of these were accompanied by at least a 4% reduction in oxygen saturation. The doctor managed to tell me in a fairly non-hurtful way that weight loss would likely improve the situation. She also said it would be "exciting" to see what changes I experience once my apnea is treated.

I got my CPAP machine that day as well. Tuesday night I spent rather a lot of time fussing with the straps on the mask, which I was sure was either leaking or too tight. The second night was much better, though. On the third night I snapped the earpiece off my glasses when I forgot to remove them before putting on the mask.

I asked my psychopharmacologist about sleep debt. Specifically, I recall reading a few years back that sleep debt accumulated indefinitely, over a lifetime. This theory has now been discredited, and it's believed that you accrue a week or two's debt, no more.