I am fascinated with the details on how I sleep. I can directly observe almost all other aspects of my health but sleep is one thing I must rely on others to understand. After waking myself with grinding jaws, I gave a call to Dr. Garside Friday to get some sort of treatment going for my poor sleeping. I spoke with his nurse and asked to see the sleep report myself. After all, I paid handsomely to have it produced, right?
The report arrived in today’s mail, a turnaround of less than 24 hours. Not only is Dr. Garside fantastic, his staff is equally fantastic! Though I was neck-deep in moving efforts again today, I found the report compelling reading.
According to the sleep lab doctor who reviewed the data, I have an AHI of 7.7 (number of apnea or hypoxia events per hour), which is slightly over the 5 considered normal. I had 52 respiratory events throughout the night: that’s one apnea event and the rest were hypopneas – where my breathing didn’t stop but became constricted.
The majority occurring while I slept on my side. This surprised me, as I always thought I slept better on my side. Out of those 52 events, most of the occurred during REM sleep. That also surprised me. My lowest oxygen saturation was 89%, which Dr. Garside circled on my report.
Curiously, my report doesn’t mention that I was suffering from a upper-respiratory infection the night of the study. I would think that would have been worth mentioning if the focus is on breathing obstructions. I definitely mentioned it verbally to the sleep tech but don’t remember if I wrote it on my paperwork.
The report’s recommendations include keeping my weight down, avoiding alcohol before bed, and having my thyroid levels checked. The last one was news to me but after reviewing the symptoms of hypothyroidism I think it should be explored. Of course, getting a tonsillectomy would probably set me right, and I’m strongly leaning in that direction if I can talk my insurance company into it. At any rate, I feel I’m getting closer to a solution here.