Comment by pmarreck
Can you reverse the function to buzz you when you're NOT on your back if you use a cpap? (It only works most effectively when on your back.) Also, what's wrong with being on your back?
Can you reverse the function to buzz you when you're NOT on your back if you use a cpap? (It only works most effectively when on your back.) Also, what's wrong with being on your back?
Incidentally, I believe I had sleep apnea when I was a kid, and for years into adult life until my wife elbowed it out of me.
My parents never thought I needed a diagnosis, but when I was just a few years old I got pneumonia from a bad cough and was prone to chest infections all my life afterwards. It was after I had whooping cough that my dad came in to check on me, and he noticed that I "wasn't breathing" (which he told to mum in a typically 'Irish Farmer'). She thought he was telling her that I was, in fact, dead and to my bedroom in a panic. Turns out she had previously noticed that I "didn't breathe". Basically, I'd appear to stop breathing entirely for very long periods of time. I think that the air would be very slowly leaking out for about a minute, and I'd be making a low whine noise. Then I'd take in a huge breath... and the low whine would begin again. I wasn't overweight, I was actually as thin as a rake, and my mother nicknamed me "Boney M" (which might show my age).
It was when I met my wife, back in the late 90s, that it became a "problem". She'd tell me I was making a terrible noise in my sleep, and I said "oh yeah, I do that". Every time my weird breathing woke her up, she treated it as if I were snoring: elbow me and say "YOU'RE DOING IT AGAIN". And I'd kinda wake up and then focus on breathing properly as a fell back asleep. I also took up running around that time.
After a few years the weird breathing (which, I now think, was asleep apnea) stopped. I had better sleep and woke refreshed, whereas all through my childhood, walking up and getting out of bed was a gargantuan effort. I could sleep till noon and still be foggy.
Anyway, aside from losing weight and doing cardio, maybe a watch that activated an elbow would be an idea?
Incidentally, another thing I trained myself to do was sleep with my mouth closed. I used to wake up extremely dry and absolutely need a pint of water beside the bed. I read once about surviving in the desert: keep your mouth shut too conserve moisture. So I'd intentionally keep my n mouth closed and breathe only through my nose. That worked too - except when I have a head cold, but I take antihistamines before bed to avoid blocked sinuses.
I don't think I have sleep apnea, but I know that if I fall asleep on my back, I begin to snore, which actuates my wife's elbow, which causes me to turn onto my side.