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Permalink Reply by Mike on September 21, 2010 at 1:49pm

that's so great to hear Heather, congratulations! reading back over Jeff's advice, it contains a lot of wisdom. we are fortunate to have Jeff and people like him on this forum.

Heather said:

Jeff and all SleepGuide folks:

It is now September 2010 and I just wanted to thank you again for taking the time to help me think through my issues. I am happy to report the "vibrating" has almost gone away, in large part, I think, due to thinking about all the comments to my post, and starting HRT (hormone replacement therapy) again. I started taking a small amount of Estradiol to see if that would help, and within two weeks the events were nearly gone. So YES, hormones do play a BIG part!

I also went to an ENT (ear nose throat) doc because my throat frequently felt "thick" like it was swollen. He felt I had LPR (larynogopharyngeal reflux, acid reflux that goes all the way up the esophagus into the throat area) and I am trying to make many diet and lifestyle changes (no food three hours before bed, no caffeine, mint, citrus, alcohol, eat small meals, don't lie down after eating, meditate, yoga!) and YES, this has helped as well.

I am also trying hard to eat more vegatables and less meat and carbos, and eat less overall. I have realized we humans need a lot less food than we currently stuff in our mouths!

So...making these changes is hard (I miss my glass of cabernet and I have a terrible timing skipping a bedtime snack), but when I do, I feel better. So it is worth it!

Hope you are doing well,

Heather

j n k said:

You may need to do some experimenting with pressure (as in more of it) and may need to give it a little more time. If you aren't feeling as you should, and you run out of things to try on your own, you may need to be more vocal with your primary doc and sleep doc to see what else you might need to try in the way of different kinds of machines or other.

Don't resign yourself to anything. Keep trying things. Well-treated OSA is something that only involves a machine at night. Maybe not a fun thing, but no biggie, really, either. So you need to be sure you are being well-treated and try things, like making dinner time earlier and not eating past a certain hour, or rigging something up for staying off your back, or trying a different mask, or, well, anything at all to change your approach. If your sleep hygiene is good in all respects, you may need to speak to a sleep specialist that specializes in changing how you THINK about things. But there are many, many things to try, so try to make a bit of a game out of it to solve the mystery of what you can do to improve your sleep.

If any of the above is irritating to read, feel free to ignore it. I'm just throwing around ideas.

jeff

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Permalink Reply by Kath Hope www.hope2Sleep.co.uk on September 21, 2010 at 4:24pm

Rock, I know this is a comment from an old post (new to me though), but can you tell me if sleep paralysis is due to undiagnosed OSA please? I used to experience this frightening paralysis quite a lot before I was diagnosed with OSA. However, I've read sleep paralysis is more to do with narcolepsy (which I don't have).

Rock Hinkle said:

Do you have any realistic dreams during these odd events? Have you ever experienced any type of sleep paralysis or something that may feel like an out of body experience?

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Permalink Reply by RL on September 22, 2010 at 12:58am

I can relate to your description of your experience, but maybe not exactly the same. Before CPAP, the worst of it was waking from a nightmare, gasping, heart racing, hot flash, vibrating feeling --- very uncomfortable and disturbing. Since then, the nightmare part and gasping have stopped, but I occasionally experience variations of this while awake, including vibration feelings, sometimes with flushing and dizzy or woozyness. I think it is related to oxygen intake, even during the day if I am not breathing evenly and deeply, and maybe also hormone fluctuations. There could be a migraine component for me also. I hope this goes away with time, but continues for me, after eight months of CPAP therapy. I worry that there is some kind of heart or vascular damage going on, but I don't know.

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Permalink Reply by Rooster on September 22, 2010 at 4:09pm

Heather, Did anyone ask you what your ramp setting is? If it is set low and you are falling asleep while the pressure is still at a sub-therapeutic level, you could be awakening from a lengthy apnea.

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Permalink Reply by Heather on September 22, 2010 at 7:00pm

Thanks; yes we did explore that thought and I do not use ramp. I think it is more related to hormones.

Rooster said:

Heather, Did anyone ask you what your ramp setting is? If it is set low and you are falling asleep while the pressure is still at a sub-therapeutic level, you could be awakening from a lengthy apnea.

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Permalink Reply by RockRpsgt on September 24, 2010 at 12:46am

Most of the time sleep paralysis is associated with narcolepsy. I have seen a few patients suffer from this disorder in correlation with brain stem damage. The majority of us will and have experienced some sort of sleep paralysis at some point in our lives. I have been able to induce sleepparalysis on myself through lucid dreaming. it is not a pleasant feeling.

Kath Hope www.hope2Sleep.co.uk said:

Rock, I know this is a comment from an old post (new to me though), but can you tell me if sleep paralysis is due to undiagnosed OSA please? I used to experience this frightening paralysis quite a lot before I was diagnosed with OSA. However, I've read sleep paralysis is more to do with narcolepsy (which I don't have).

Rock Hinkle said:

Do you have any realistic dreams during these odd events? Have you ever experienced any type of sleep paralysis or something that may feel like an out of body experience?

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