I knew I was a snorer. My husband had mentioned it a few times but it never seemed to me to be a serious issue. My Dad was a heavy snorer too…I just figured it was one of those things. Lots of people snore.
But once several years ago, I was travelling with one of my best friends and we were sharing a hotel room. When we woke up in the morning, she told me that she thought I had stopped breathing in the middle of the night. It concerned her, but for whatever reason, I didn’t really think much more of it, despite her warning and suggestion to have a sleep study done.
Life went on, and I continued to snore. No big deal, right?
How wrong I was.
Over the years, the signs appeared, although not all at once. I often felt sleepy…really sleepy during the day. If I was sitting in a long meeting or class I often had to force myself to keep my eyes open and stay focused. It was also hard work to keep my eyes open as a passenger on a long drive - just ask my friend mentioned above, or my husband. As a result, I started to avoid driving long distances, especially by myself. I chalked it up to just having a busy life and not a lot of downtime.
But then there was the unexplained brain fog. Conversations I had flew in one ear and out the other at times, much to the frustration of my business partner. “We talked about this yesterday!” she’d exclaim. I sometimes had no recollection of entire events or conversations.
If I had a particularly long day, by the end of it I was simply incapable of functioning. I couldn’t prepare a meal, do a hobby, or even pay attention to an entire episode of a show if I’d over-extended myself during the day. I couldn’t WAIT to get to bed, but when I woke up each morning, I felt just as tired as the day before.
Then, in 2020, two extremely significant events happened in my life. First was the COVID-19 pandemic. Locked down with no place to go and not a lot to do, I began to realize that even though my schedule was much lighter all of a sudden and I had more time to rest, I was still SO TIRED. Second, my Dad was going through cancer treatment after having been diagnosed in 2019 (he passed away in 2021). The emotional strain of those two events was enough to put me over the edge.
My mental health started to rapidly decline. Panic attacks that I hadn’t known for over 20 years came back with a vengeance. My mood was so up and down I could hardly keep track. It became hard to do everything. Just walking up the stairs seemed to take a tremendous amount of effort. I was barely existing in my life, everything was a fog, and all I really wanted to do was, ironically, sleep.
Flash forward to 2024….yes, I went on like this for 4 WHOLE YEARS (probably more). Somehow, I was still not making the connection between all of these issues I was having and sleep.
Then one day, I was talking to my friend Bob, and with permission, he told me I could share what occurred next. Bob told me that he had obstructive sleep apnea, a condition which causes people to stop breathing temporarily (and sometimes often) when sleeping. The condition is serious, and potentially life-threatening, in fact. He had been using a CPAP machine for several years and it made a tremendous difference in his life.
I started asking him questions about it. How was he diagnosed? How is it sleeping with a machine strapped to your face every night? How does your partner feel about it? He very graciously answered all my questions and then some, and I finally started to connect the dots. Was it possible that my lack of energy, brain fog, and anxiety could be the sign of a sleep disorder? Now I had to know.
I finally went to see a doctor about it. I told him that I was interested in getting a sleep study done. He asked me a bunch of questions about my mental and physical health, and said, yes, I was definitely a candidate. The referral was made and 3 weeks later I was on a train to Kingston for my overnight sleep study. From that night forward, things in my life have been very different.
To be continued…..
Never listen to Bobs.