Its been a weird few days.  For those of you who don’t know, I had a sleep study done a few weeks ago and it turns out I have severe sleep apnea.  I got my sleep apnea equipment on Friday.  When I went to pick it up, it was a bit of a shock when they expected a $555 copay that nobody had told me about up to that point, as well as the shock it was going to cost me $158 a month to rent the equipment. Getting past that, I got home that night and used the equipment for the first time.

It turns out when they did the sleep study, they started me out on a CPAP device, but then switched me in the middle of the night to a more advanced BiPAP machine (without ever telling me).  I had a hard time falling asleep with the BiPAP, as it switches between two pressures.  I tried to fall asleep for an hour, but it wasn’t happening.  I got back up all stressed and smoked a cigarette.  I eventually went back to bed and managed to sleep for 4 hours.  I had some pretty odd and vivid dreams, so I know it hit REM sleep, which is great!  I woke up freezing and got up to turn up the heat a notch, and then promptly fell back asleep before I remembered to put the sleep mask back on.

So that was my first night. I woke up mid-morning, feeling pretty rested actually.  Went about my Saturday as normal. That evening, I was cleaning up around the house. I took a short break to sit down in my recliner and pet the cat about 7pm.  The next thing I know, I wake up and its 3 in the damn morning.  I literally slept in the recliner for 7 hours, undisturbed – no getting up to pee or anything.  Now I’m feeling fully rested, and I’m wide awake.  I doubt I’m going to go back to bed, or that I’ll use the equipment again until tonight.

Sigh.  What a way to start my Christmas Eve.