As others have mentioned, yes it is. I use a nasal mask that took some getting used to but now its not a big issue. I get a better level of sleep now and it has reduced my daytime fatigue as well. I must have had decent insurance coverage for the sleep study because I did 2 separate sessions and I only had two $30 co-pays for them. They prescribed for me a very nice unit, a resmed airsense 10. It has heat and humidity which helps stop condensation you get in cheaper units while keeping your breath pathways from drying out from the airflow. I dont like the idea of sleeping with a mask on while hooked up to a machine but the health benefits are totally worth it. My copay on the unit and supplies will probably run me $150 or so but most of that is the machine cost and that’s a one time expense. I didnt know about the nitetime urination ties to apnea but I have noticed I dont need to do that anywhere near as often as I did before I started using the cpap.
I set up a playlist of natural sound “music” on my amazon prime account. They were free with Prime and several to choose from. I simply put the playlist on shuffle and repeat and it runs all nite. I use the Sounds of Nature - White noise sound effects series mostly. If you have a Prime account and search for those they should be easy to find.
Wumpus, I too snore, we both probably need a sleep study and a CPAP or similar, there are multiple health benefits that come with stopping snoring.
However, you cannot FALL asleep. That is an entirely different issue. My GF suffers from the same. She uses melatonin and sometimes OTC sleep meds. Though the former help, the latter work only occasionally.
So what does work? I’m the guy in this thread that isn’t going to hold back on the possible illegality of what I would suggest. Cannabis, specifically not a sativa or hybrid strain but a full blown indica strain. It is relaxing. It puts you into a wound down state that will in many instances, put you to sleep, even directly. In many states it may be possible to talk to your doc about it, so it is worth mentioning it to you. Some strains are quite awesome at just making you so relaxed, you are just plain sleepy. No hangover, no grogginess the next morning, no crazy dreams, just sleep. A peaceful sleep, even. There are also multiple forms of delivery, so even if you are not fond of any smoking, you may find a great alternative method.
Best of luck, man. Sleep is a horrible thing to struggle with.
Weed is my go to sleep aid as well. Takes effect instantly (unless you’re using edibles), and I usually fall asleep within 5 seconds of my head hitting the pillow. Benadryl works really well for me also, though it takes up to 2 hours to kick in, so, not terribly handy in a need-now situation. Also leaves me pretty groggy if I have to get up for work. Melatonin does absolutely nothing for me. I think the key thing is to try everything suggested and see what works for you.
The CPAP treatment also worked really well, though I’ve only used it once, when I had to undergo a sleep study for breathing problems I was having. With all the electrodes glued to me, and blasting TVs from the other patient’s rooms, I wasn’t even close to falling asleep, then two hours later, one of the nurses brought in a CPAP, and I was out within a minute.
Oh yeah, weed drops me like someone filled a sock with pennies and hit me over the back of the head. I don’t know that I’d recommend smoking weed to fall asleep every single night any more than doing a shot of everclear. Both seem excessive.
I don’t know the details but I know people who take weed for pain actually just take CBD which (supposedly) has no effects on their mind, no high, nothing. They drive, do intense cognitive work on it, everything. They get it through a medical card and a legit dispenser who tells you the exact percentages of what they get, so they get 100%-CBD 0%-THC in a pill that they just take like any other medication. Or a dropper sometimes I think you put one drop on your tongue.
I’ve never tried it so I can’t attest whether there really is no high at all and it’s purely medical, but it seems like a real thing, and I wonder if some other variant exists as a sleep aid. Although I guess if you are just going to sleep anyway it’s not as important to avoid other effects from the drug…
CBD is a different part of the extracted compounds of cannabis and shows good promise at treating a lot of things. THC is the compound that affects the mind though, as well as some terpenes which affect a number of things. It’s complicated though and that’s precisely why more medical studies need to be allowed, on more than just the government grown strain as well.
So, even with THC, the strain of the plant affects things differently. A cerebral, highly functioning high from sativa, a milder happiness and euphoric feel from a hybrid strain, or a calm, peaceful, sleep inducing high from an indica strain. They are all over the map and really should be studied for the effects and just how they do it.
I agree, but I don’t know where Wumpus lives, it could be perfectly legal to pursue and use. I would take that over trying to get drunk to pass out, any day. As with either though, the amount is key.
Sleep is weird. The following have worked for me at one time or another:
-No screens for at least 20, preferably 30, minutes before bed. If my mind was racing, I would focus it by reading something non-backlit – either a physical book or one of the cheap Kindles.
-Diffused lavender oil. My wife did this for a while, and I don’t concede that it did anything physiological, but the aroma gave my mind something to focus on.
-Music has worked for me in a way that noise machines haven’t. Doesn’t matter what genre, as long as it’s just super quiet.
-Alcohol worked well for a little bit, but as others have experienced, I wake up in the middle of the night if I try it now.
-This shit. Seriously. I’m 100% positive it was all placebo, and I don’t believe in it at all, but there were several months when these would just knock me out.
Maybe these will help, maybe none. Just offering them up sincerely and optimistically.
If you’ve not averse to a little bit of un-regulated pharmacology, kava is known to have some relaxative effects. And it’s probably not bad for your liver!
I’ve purchased and ingested some in the past. I’m not entirely convinced it had any psychoactive affect on me, but I can definitely say that it made my mouth go numb for a while. I do recall that I slept pretty hard afterwards despite not drinking or anything else. It also tastes almost exactly like drinking a small glass of mud.
More of a curiosity than a recommendation, but just though I’d mention it.
There was a Soda, Mary Jane that contains kava. It never did much for me that i could tell, but I certainly liked the idea. Probably not great on the calorie content though.
I used to have the exact same issue falling asleep, my mind would just not shut up and kept racing.
What fixed it for me was a routine, which was a pretty hard adjustment. In bed between 11pm to midnight and then reading for 30 minutes, I started falling asleep almost instantly and sleeping through the night. I haaaated this change from my previous life style but it made a massive difference. I still can’t believe how much of a change it was.
Also, if oxygen saturation is dropping, it affects peripheral blood vessels. I thought for years I had prostatitis. Turns out it was sleep apnea.
If a nasal pillow is irritating your nose, it sounds like it is too tight. (On second read, I wonder if you are referring to the type that’s inserted into your nose…I can’t stand those things)
The Mirage FX from Resmed gets my strongest possible recommendation for being comfortable, easy to use, and easy to clean. Also works fine with facial hair.
I should have been clearer. Melatonin by itself has never really helped me. My girlfriend had me try it by itself, making the case that it was way cheaper to buy a bottle of melatonin than a case of Neuro Sleep, but it didn’t do anything. Probably something to do with how it was dosed, based on what I’m reading here, but I haven’t felt the need to go back and try it.
Yes, I meant the kind that goes into the nose. I mainly use the wisp which is a nasal mask and the other type to take a break from the Wisp every now and then. The advantage to the nasal pillow if you can used to them is that they take the least amount of real estate on your face (especially if you wear glasses and want to read or watch TV with the machine running). I use a kindle to read so can just enlarge the font so do not need my glasses.
I have the Resmed Air 10 CPAP machine and I love it comes with a travel case.
I have had a doctor tell me that 2 glasses of alcohol a day is good for you. I would think wine rather than beer would be better though, less liquid.
I have always been a great sleeper but as I have gotten older and have to do the “get up and piss in the middle of the night” thing I have found that about once a week or so I just can’t get back to sleep. If it happens around 2am I usually make it back to sleep but if it happens around 4am or later I am usually screwed.
Getting old sucks on your sleep.
And while I haven’t read all the way thru the thread yet I imagine someone has mentioned sleep apnea by now.
See I thought this too. On average it would take 2, 3 sometimes 4 hours for me to fall asleep. Once my quality of sleep improved, I am closer to an hour now. That is still a lot longer than those 15 minute bastards out there, damn you nappers!, but it made a difference there. So yeah the Insomnia has improved due to the treatment for the sleep apnea.
The Sleep Studies have the potential to lead to a CPAP machine. They test for other things at the same time.
Oh and my pillow does not insert a darn thing into my nose. I told them that would just not due. It just sits against my nose.
I tried one that you insert into your mouth and I hated it. Had real trouble for a while because when I started using cpap again several years ago, I ended up with terrible chronic nasal congestion (seriously, I had so much trouble breathing that I had chest pain from use of accessory breathing muscles and thought I was having heart trouble). I’ve lost about 35 pounds in the last two years and stopped using my cpap some time back. I do ok without it, if I keep my weight under control.
I’m 100% sure I’m going to come away from a sleep study with a CPAP. I’m okay with that. I just need to get off my ass and schedule it. They aren’t cheap either, but everyone I know that has gone down that road praised the results, similar to what you are saying here.
I’m a big fan of the Sleep With Me podcast. Not going to help with anything serious like sleep apnoea, but I’ve had mild insomnia for as long as I remember and it does the trick most nights. It’s just interesting enough so you’re not bored while you fall asleep, but not so interesting as to keep you awake.
