Sleep

I went to the doctor today for another post-sinus-surgery check up. He was looking around my throat and nose and he noticed that I have enormous tonsils, which, I guess I’ve had for a while. So then he starts asking me questions.

Him: Do you snore?
Me: God yes.
Him: What time to you go to bed at night?
Me: 10, 11 or 12.
Him: What time do you get up?
Me: 7.
Him: So you usually get 7-9 hours of sleep per night?
Me: Yeah, I guess. I get out of whack on the weekend, though, because I usually go to bed around 2-3 and get up at 10.
Him: That’s alright. How long does it take you to fall asleep at night?
Me: *snaps fingers*
Him: Can you take afternoon naps?
Me: I can sleep anytime.
Him: Do you feel energized in the morning, or is it hard for you to wake up?
Me: I guess it’s a bit hard sometimes
Him: HEH. You sir, may have a sleep disorder.
Me: WHAT?
Him: Yeah. People your age should be able to feel energized on 5-6 hours of sleep, and you appear to be constantly sleep deprived after getting 8-9 hours. What could be happening is you’re waking up many times during the night, and never getting steady sleep, making you constantly sleep deprived, which could explain why you can sleep anytime, and fall asleep instantly. And a sleep disorder isn’t something to be taken lightly – fixing a sleep disorder can actually make you live longer and allow you to perform better everyday.

The basic reason for snoring and also for sleep apnea is simply lack of air flow. If you’re not getting enough air during sleep, you’re going to have trouble sleeping. And by looking at the size of my throat opening (small), he’s guessing that that could be the cause of some problems — snoring, sleep deprivation, and getting sick easily (due to a weak immune system, due to lack of sleep).

I expressed my concerns about removing tonsils, asking ‘isn’t that an outdated practice that’s generally frowned upon now?” And he agreed, but said “the only time you ever remove tonsils is if you’d definitely be better off without them.” I’m still a bit iffy about jumping right into that, but the first step is to find out if I wake up a bagillion times during the night or stop breathing, so I’m going to sign up for a sleep study, where they monitor my breathing and movement during a full night’s sleep.

I’m kinda excited. Not only will it possibly be the beginning of solving a myriad of problems, but going to sleep clinic sounds like a great story to tell. Heh. Of course, it could all be a bunch of hooey, I could be fine and could have just connected the imaginary dots in the previous paragraphs like a hypo.

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You’re currently reading “Sleep,” an entry on Jeff XL

Published:: 12.07.04 / 2:13 am

Category:: Personal

All Posts:: Earlier / Later

In 'Personal':: Earlier / Later

I noticed that you added me, so I read some of your stuff and you’re not a complete snoozefest…so adding you back.

onlyforward 12.07.04 / 11am

It’s funny that you say I’m not a complete snoozefest after I write an entry blabbing about how I might have sleeping disorder. Heh.

jeffxl 12.07.04 / 11am

That’s true…must have been some kind of power of suggestion thing.

Where did your “doctor” get an M.D.? Out of a Cracker Jack box?! People our are supposed to feel energized after 5-6 hours of sleep? Shit…

It’s kind of funny because you and I might both have sleeping disorders, but we are on completely opposite sides of the “ability to fall asleep” spectrum. You can sleep right away at night and any other time you want, while I usually can’t get to sleep until dawn no matter if I go to bet at 11:00, 2:00 or 4:30. I lose at least 20 hours of productive time every week because I just lay in bed and pray to God to let me fall asleep. But no, we live under a cruel, malicious vengeful God, and he doesn’t let me get to sleep until I realize I need to get up in several hours and sleeping is pretty much pointless at this point in time. Stupid insomnia. What really gets my goat is posers who say “Ooh, I have a sleeping disorder! I have a sleeping disorder!” because the CAN sleep when they want. What the fuck? I’d trade my sleeping disorder for yours anytime, Jeff, anytime…ya poser.

tommyhollywood 12.07.04 / 7pm

Are you sure it’s not the millions of chinese people making a ruckus around you that’s keeping you awake?

jeffxl 12.07.04 / 7pm

I can totally relate to Tom’s post. And I really would trade sleep disorders. I don’t want to live longer anyway. I have to go young like any good rock star.

caulkrocket 12.08.04 / 1am

Actually Tom, there are probably a lot of reasons for your insomnia, and they are probably all your fault.

K, I worked the overnight shift for 5 years, which means that I was a day-sleeper for 5 years too. It took a bit of work to get on that schedule, but in my efforts to find restful sleep, I learned a lot about sleep disorders and whatnot. What you call insomnia is probably caused by your own habits… Some pointers:
1) don’t drink caffeine less than 6 hours before you sleep (you might say that it doesn’t affect you, but it does, idiot),
2) don’t exercise or play video games (or do anything else that energizes your body or mind) right before bed,
3) create a ‘ritual’ before bedtime; ie. brush your teeth, wash your face, put on your PJs, read a dull book, etc.
4) don’t watch TV in bed, only use your bed for sleeping and sex,
5) if you lie awake in bed for more than 20 minutes, get out of bed for a little bit and distract yourself somehow (read the newspaper, eat a snack, etc.)

The idea behind all these techniques is to create a strong sleeping “habit”, like a Pavlovian response. Basically, don’t get charged up before you go to sleep, and make a pattern for yourself that results in sleepiness. Watching TV to fall asleep is a huge problem — you’d think the boredom of infomercials would be enough to put you to sleep, if not kill you. But since you usually watch TV for entertainment, just having it on keeps your brain awake, “ready to be entertained.” It took me awhile to get the hang of this too, and sometimes I do use TV to fall asleep — I’ll pop in a boring movie, turn the volume down so low that I can’t understand the dialog, and roll over so I don’t watch it. Hey, works for me.

Tom, Sam, any other insomniacs reading this — try this shit out, it works. Believe me, there are a lot more distractions during the daylight hours – lack of darkness, noise from outside, random telephone calls, interesting TV programs – but there are ways to overcome them and learn to shut off your brain with you want to.

selfmute 12.14.04 / 5pm

Maybe if you little pussies would put in a hard workin-man’s day of labor like Fro and I, you would fall asleep right away too.

*note* if read through your dirty glasses, this post sounds gay. Rest assured, it is not.

ivanstringer 12.16.04 / 1am

Jeff XL

Sleep

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