Poor sleep drove me insane, and my long path to recovery

At some point I went nearly insane. Turns out that ADHD medication can mask sleep apnea. You need the medication but when you cannot sleep properly you go from meditation that is good for your to acting like a meth addict when your actual sleep is 2 hour a night for 2 years. At the worse point of crazy the doctors figured if out and also asked how I was not insane?!? Honestly I was at the point of CT with contrast looking for brain tumors looking for why! All good now. Health focused. Figured out sleep issue and made huge life style changes. CPAP pressures level down to minimum now after much work, with goal to be off of it. I cannot stress how important it is to have a stable measured baseline on all available measurements you can take about your body. BP, sleep cycle, heart rate, etc. things like the Apple Watch are miracles off technology we all need to embrace. Modern medical science used correctly is a game changer. Data is king and understanding it and questioning the doctors to the point of understanding matters. A good doctor will answer your questions in detail and work with you. If yours does not, find a better doctor.

We have 2 cats that I love but one of them makes sure that I do not get a good nights sleep. I could not find any solutions so far. On top of that my wife snores and I’ve had long periods of poor sleep as a result of this.

I realised that this is an issue while traveling. Being able to properly sleep in hotels and feeling rested / clear.

Trying to find solutions. Ear plugs don’t feel good and even though sleeping in the guest room helps with snoring, not the cat. (I close the door, little shit screams his lungs off in front of the door)

I never slept great in my 20s either but I guess my body could cope. Now it’s screwing things up.

I appreciate you sharing your story. I had a similar journey over the last couple years because of the pandemic. Looking back now it was definitely an issue at least as far back as early teens.

I used to work out a lot, and very intensely as that was the only thing that made me feel "awake". It wasn't until the lockdowns when I couldn't get to the gym that it got bad enough that I also started my own journey to this diagnosis.

I had started living more in the dream world than the real world and being awake was a daze. I became distant to the world and lost my imagination, memory, and emotion. I was also questioning how I could ever go on with my current job and life.

Thankfully, I also started a sleep apnea treatment (oral appliance, and later CPAP) after many discussions with my doctor. This mostly fixed my condition. The difference is incredible and I don't have the words to describe how it has changed my life.

So I want to say thank you for sharing your story, you're not alone and I hope others see your story and get the help they need.

If you've read this story and suffer any of the symptoms mentioned, I highly recommend doing a sleep study, it's truly life altering.

Currently dealing with severe sleep apnea & the near inability to breathe thru my nose as a younger, athletic in a past life, skinny & thin framed male. Unable to get started w/CPAP due to life instability, & even that isn’t going to fully fix things as I have to have other major surgery that involves surgically removing my completely wrecked scalenes (anterior & middle - scalenes are secondary breathing muscles), a septoplasty, & a large amount of physical therapy & potential other surgery to help with severe muscular issues around/relating to my diaphragm (primary breathing muscle)

I’m affected in most ways he’s mentioned - but one thing I didn’t see is & what in the grand scheme of things is kinda dumb - is that chronic mouth breathing absolutely wrecked my once chisel-sharp jawline. Hoping one day after a few years of breathing thru my nose & postural improvement it will somewhat reappear.

I furthermore got completely shitrekt from the most wildly near-unbelievable thing - I have a mattress (from a company with owners who were HN users & described severe quality control issues with their mattresses that conveniently lined up near the time I purchased it - very fun lawsuit) that was apparently made with a sufficient amount of fiberglass (textile fiberglass, a bit different from insulation you’ve probably seen before) & the mattress leaked a ridiculous amount of fiberglass through both the bottom & top of the mattress. Having carpeted floors, I was vacuuming underneath the mattress for years, not knowing that was sending it into the entire HVAC system of my house. Eventually found out everything was coming from the mattress… & though I could go on, absolute shitshow.

Now, normally this wouldn’t be the worst thing as a young college person typically spends a good amount of time out of their house & in fresh air. I was unfortunately on bed rest, mostly in my room (ground zero of fiberglass mattress biohazard), for around two years as coronavirus canceled my aforementioned major surgery four times over the course of 1.5-2 years.

Reason in mentioning this: a large amount of mattresses HN demographic may find themselves ordering (e.g. on Amazon/the internet in general) are made partially of fiberglass. It’s such a large issue it’s now made it into LA Times articles - I can only recommend anybody check their brand in a google search with “fiberglass mattress” (maybe site:reddit.com as well)

Now, the good news is that it’s typically only an issue if you remove the zipper covering & release it, & you’ll likely quickly notice. Unfortunately in some it will still leak out of the bottom of the mattress over time (shedding, from pine needles like a tree) & unfortunately for me - mine happened to be an ultra-specific case where the manufacturer didn’t even have a zipper removable cover. It was just a breathable mesh & the fiberglass poked out of both the bottom & top of the mattress, in unbelievable amounts. I’m thankful for my 4k iPhone camera, else documenting it in my situation would’ve been near impossible.

Anyways, fuck you mattress company that used to talk shop on HN. Breathing textile fiberglass shards in my room & entire house for 2+ years wrecked my airways to an unforgivable degree.

you can do immunotherapy--allergy shots. i have a friend at work with the same issues, loves his dog but it wrecks his sleep. allergy shots desensitize you to animal dander, but its a long process with weekly injections. Results in 1 year+