Tag: sleep

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Sleep News

Friday morning I had an appointment with my sleep doctor. The week before I had the data downloaded from my CPAP machine and they forwarded the results to my doctor.

He congratulated on my flawless “compliance” results (machine said I used it every night, but I know I missed one night with a head cold) and explained how I was doing. Even though I’m still experiencing several hypopnea events per hour, they only comprise .3% of my total sleep time, which is very good. He also examined my nose and throat and found that the swelling of my adenoids has decreased. All good news. I see him again in six months.

Saturday afternoon, after the football games and lunch, I settled in for some TV on the couch and soon fell asleep. I slept for several hours and woke in the early evening in time for dinner. At dinner, I noted that my throat felt sore when I swallowed. This was not the first time I had noticed this after napping and realized that it was because of snoring. Snoring makes the adenoids “flap” in the breeze which makes them swell. When they swell, they flap even worse. It really illustrates how important it is for me to use the CPAP every night.

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Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 279 miles
Average speed: 10.5 mph
Weight lost: 39 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8.5
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: The Ramones, Stadium Arcadium by Red Hot Chili Peppers, Coverville, DrugMusic, Science Friday, Mechanical Animals by Marilyn Manson
Recent viewing: Sportscenter, 24, Countdown, The Colbert Report
Recent playing: Zuma, Mr. Driller
Recently accomplished: Recited various incantations to revive a failed hard drive
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, get my computer to boot, rake, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Link: Camera Obscura: Ken Jennings constructs a mini-album cover recognition quiz. I only got half of them.

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Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 255 miles
Weight lost: 35 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 10
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Arkansas Traveler (remaster) by Michelle Shocked,
Recent viewing: Mets at Cardinals, Austin City Limits (Ray Davies), High Stakes Poker
Recent playing: Zuma, Halo
Recently accomplished: Helped Buddy move, more work on Thomas’ computer, grocery shopping
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, get my computer to boot, rake, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Link: White & Nerdy: Weird Al tries his hand at Nerdcore.

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Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 257 miles
Weight lost: 35 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 9.2
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Pronounced Leh’-nerd Skin’-nerd by Lynryd Skynyrd, DrugMusic, NPR Story of the Day, Science Friday, Planet Waves by Bob Dylan, Lost Dogs by Pearl Jam, Second Helping by Lynryd Skynyrd
Recent viewing: Countdown, Sportscenter, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report, Drawn Together, CSI: Crime Scene Investigation, My Name Is Earl, The Office
Recent playing: Zuma, Halo
Recently accomplished: Paid bills, trying to figure out Thomas’ hard drive
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, rake, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Link: Nintendo DS and other folding things: Thomas releases his first animated short to the world.

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Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 243 miles
Weight lost: 32 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 8.5
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Glimmer by Kim Richey, Vol. 3: The Subliminal Verses by Slipnot, KBOO Bike Show, John Prine
Recent viewing: Crash, Steelers at Chargers, Cowboys at Eagles, Charlie Rose (Bob Woodward), Meet the Press (Bob Woodward), Drawn Together (season premiere!), Without A Trace
Recent playing: Zuma, Halo
Recently accomplished: Fixed Thomas’ hard drive, installed new OS for Thomas, lubed and cleaned bike
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, get Thomas’ computer to boot, rake, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store, pay bills
Cool Link: Blogs – and God’s Youth: Does God want you blogging?

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Vital Statistics

Bike odometer: 233 miles
Weight lost: 32 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 9.5 (slept in)
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Portrait: The Music of Dan Fogelberg by Dan Fogelberg, The Ramones, Eating’s Not Cheating by mc chris, Glimmer by Kim Richey
Recent viewing: Battlestar Galactica, South Park, Nova, Discoveries This Week, Rock Show, Charlie Rose, The Colbert Report, The Daily Show
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Installed new bike computer, pulled Thomas’ hard drives for analysis and repair
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, rake, finish fixing Thomas’ hard drive, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Video: Darkness.Light.Darkness. (Warning: contains clay nudity)

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Sleep update

The longer I use the CPAP and the wigkussen I got from slaapcity, the better my sleep seems to get. I’m no longer waking up because my mouth opens (as described earlier) and it isn’t waking Tina, either. So either it’s not happening or we’ve both grown used to it. I’m now sleeping all the way through the night and often wake up before my alarm. I haven’t been able to tell what time it is when that happens because it’s dark and I can’t really see the alarm on the other side of the bed with the mask on. However, I decided to just get up the other day when it happened and it was almost exactly seven hours after I had gone to bed. A few years ago I zeroed in on seven hours as the perfect amount of sleep – any more or less would make me feel tired. I think the fact that I’m waking up unassisted now after seven hours is an excellent sign that I’m returning to normal sleep patterns.

Take a look at these Mattress Sizes & Bed Size Dimensions I was looking up online to improve my good night sleep and back pain.

Next week I take the CPAP machine to the technician so she can read the results. It uses changes in air pressure and resistance to record a number of statistics. The week after, I have an appointment with my sleep doctor to discuss the CPAP stats and anything else I’d like to talk about, I am also going to see if I can start using the maternity pillow at night. It will be interesting to see how the machine’s log matches with the log that I started keeping when I began using the CPAP. The only complaint I have now is that my mouth is very dry when I wake but I doubt anything can be done about that.

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Vital Statistics

Two more Half.com gift certificates arrived after my birthday. Here’s the rest of the stuff I bought:

Thanks a bunch to Tom & Jan and Tina, Graham & Thomas. As I mentioned earlier Half.com has become my favorite semi-annual ritual.

Bike odometer: 220 miles
Weight lost: 32 lbs.
Hours of sleep last night: 7.2
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Portrait: The Music of Dan Fogelberg by Dan Fogelberg, DrugMusic, Humpy’s Soul Show, It’s The Jump Off
Recent viewing: Without A Trace, Mystery of the Megavolcano, The Daily Show, The Colbert Report
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Installed memory in Graham’s computer
Imperative To Do: Finish old blog entries, rake, install new hard drive for Thomas, clean garage, return stuff to hardware store
Cool Link: Kittens: Pictures taken by a man in Taiwan who rescues street cats before the government collects and “disposes” of them.

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Vital Statistics

Happy Birthday To Me!

Today I turned 40 years old. I’ll never be 30-something again. I guess I have to enjoy being in my 40s because the alternatives are worse.

One of the great pleasures of my birthday is the gift certificate that Tina’s sister, Michelle, and her family give me from Half.com. This morning the email was waiting for me when I awoke. All I had to do was click a button in the email to redeem the certificate. Then I browsed through my Wishlist and picked everything that I really wanted at that moment. After selecting CDs and books worth about five times the amount of the gift certificate, I removed the items from my shopping cart that were less important. I ended up with three CDs and a book:

The past two nights I have slept very well and don’t remember any mouth-leaking episodes. Tina says that it’s still happening and has to use earplugs. I woke this morning with no alarm after eight hours of sleep. I hope this is a turning point.

Bike odometer: 201 miles
Current reading: I Am Charlotte Simmons by Tom Wolfe, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Last week’s charts
Recent viewing: The Manchurian Candidate (remake), High Stakes Poker, World Series of Poker, Headline News
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Mowed lawn, cleaned office, finished birthday invites, cleaned up back yard and deck, stored air conditioner for the winter, setup music for party
Imperative To Do: Hair cut, new rear fender for bike, finish old blog entries, fix toilet
Cool Link: Marijuana Morals

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Vital Statistics

I think I got better sleep last night, but I still woke up many times either because the mask was leaking or my mouth had opened. After blogging this weekend, I went back to Wikipedia to see if there was any information about my problem. At the end of the CPAP article, there were a number of links that I tried including one for CPAP Talk, an online forum for CPAP users. I found an article by a guy who had the same problem as I have (mouth opening during REMs) that solved it by taping his mouth shut. I’m going to continue as I have for a couple of more weeks, but if I keep waking up because of my big mouth, I’m going to give my doctor a call and ask him his opinion about taping it shut. Sounds pretty simple!

Five years ago today I drove my little truck to work instead of biking or riding the Max. I think I forgot the faceplate for my stereo because I didn’t listen to the radio on the way there. Usually, I would listen to NPR if it was early enough, or Mark & Brian if it was later. When I got to work, Tina called me and told me to go to CNN.com. That’s how I found out about the attacks on the WTC and the Pentagon. We turned on the satellite receiver attached to our projector at work, but we had let the subscription lapse. So I wasn’t subjected to the media coverage until I got home that night. I remember driving to work for days after watching the taller buildings expecting a plane to fly into them. I remember how happy I felt when I heard a plane fly over our house again after the airport was silent for a week. Little did we know then that it would be used as justification for the biggest mistake this country has ever undertaken.

Bike odometer: 137 miles
Current reading: The Last True Story I’ll Ever Tell by John Crawford, The Prince by Machiavelli
Recent listening: Taking The Long Way by Dixie Chicks, John Prine
Recent viewing: Bad Santa, U.S. Open Men’s Final
Recent playing: Zuma
Recently accomplished: Paid bills
Imperative To Do: Labels for my sister’s CDs, test drive new bike seats, bank, refinish deck, hair cut, service van
Cool Link: HowStuffWorks: A great site with easy explanations, diagrams and animations to show how stuff works. Examples: How Car Engines Work, How Blogs Work, How File Compression Works, How do stringrays kill?