OH WHAT A NIGHT!

All my life I was a bad sleeper, and all my life I didn’t realize why. I thought it was just the way life is, that you got up at least once in the night and maybe even twice, that you looked at the clock and watched it go hour after hour, until just before it was time to get up and go to work or school, only to fall asleep from the experience for an hour or less, waking up exhausted. Once up in the course of the day, you drift off, nodding and fighting your way through the day to keep awake, all from a bad night sleep.

Then one day TLW (The Little Woman) said:

“Joe, I think you have sleep apnea, you were breathing, then you stopped and then you woke up. The den needs painting and…”

Well you get the gist of it, I went for a sleep study, and sure enough I have sleep apnea! Who knew?

Now this is good to know because there are major changes in my life about to occur!

For instance, all those things I promised TLW now become null and void, I was tired when I agreed! When you are sleep deprived, you agree to do things that if you had slept well, you wouldn’t. That means I have to reconsider some of the chores I’ve been doing, you know, put them under review. I’m thinking now, there may have been too many: “Yes dear” thrown around when sleepy, not fully conscience of what I agreed to.

Another thing, I need to catch up to years of lack of sleep. I probably would have been a lot taller, not to mention smarter (Hey, I heard that!) had I had the proper rest. There are things I bought that I must have been asleep at the time when I purchased them.

Now I realize how many times I went somewhere and don’t remember the trip itself.  Was I sleep driving? How many times did I forget where I parked? Sleep parking? Did I sleep through a meal? That I can’t believe. I know my age, but it doesn’t feel that old, did I sleep through a few years? And how many times did I go into the next room and forgot why? Was I sleep walking and did I maybe fall asleep on the way into the next room?

Well my first real night of sleep just occurred with the Cpap machine. I slept soundly, dreamlessly, and never got up once in the middle of the night. Awaking fully rested. I almost jumped out of bed!

If you snore, or have nights where you are up looking at the clock, you may have sleep apnea. Dealing with it can prolong your life, reduce your blood pressure and improve your looks, or so I hear. If any of that happens I’ll let you know.

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