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Sleep Apnea Blues

by Dan
(San Jose)

I have sleep apnea. Basically it means I don't breathe enough when I sleep, so my body wakes me up. My particular brand was about 62 times a night. This went on for two years until I was diagnosed. Two years of bare minimum REM.


I was literally going out of my mind. I had become a different person. I was tired ALL the time. I had less fun, less friends, my life was sliding into one big yawning blur, and had pretty bad cravings for late night snacks that turned into late night meals. I remember driving home every day with my head bobbing from the need to sleep in rush hour traffic. I think it's a miracle I didn't crash.

My condition was so bad that sometimes I would feel better pulling an all nighter than trying to sleep, cause at least with an all nighter I wasn't hoping to fall asleep and not being able to.

At the end of the day, now that I've had my breathing machine for a year now, I'm honestly still not 100%. But I'm sure as heck getting back to where I was.

Moral of the story, if you can't sleep, see a doctor, dude. And if you have a narrow throat/over weight/ Snore like a wood chipper, you might have Sleep Apnea, and the cure is a cool little Darth Vader mask you wear while you sleep.

Comments for Sleep Apnea Blues

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May 15, 2011
Wise Words
by: Kevin Morton

Wise words, Dan. Thanks for sharing 'em. And I'm with ya--a Darth Vader mask is a heck of a lot cooler than turning into a zombie during the day.

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Welcome! This site is continuously being created by students of Dr. William C. Dement's Sleep And Dreams course at Stanford University.

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