Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

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

writing.samsonhu.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

91–100 of 370 posts

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

#91

Post by Razengan »

I am extremely affected by outdoors noise during sleep. Traffic, construction, kids crying, people shouting..

I try my best to convince myself "I'm perfectly comfortable, nothing's happening in my bedroom, whoever is causing that noise can not affect me in any way" but to no avail :(

If the source is indoors, like the whirr of a hard disk (very annoying on recent Macs + external hard disks, constantly spinning up and down) I have to turn it off before trying to sleep.

It gets so bad that even the mere anticipation of an expected noise, a clang or a honk or a yell, prevents me from falling asleep. For me it's definitely psychological than physical. Sort of an arrogant insistence that everyone and everything should be silent while I rest.

Thankfully when I'm really tired I stop caring about noise and just drop like a log.

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

#92

Post by marhee »

> And I started taking antihistamines daily.

Antihistamines can make you drowsy, ie. "brain foggy": (Quoting the web)

Side effects of antihistamines * sleepiness (drowsiness) and reduced co-ordination, reaction speed and judgement – do not drive or use machinery after taking these antihistamines. * dry mouth. * blurred vision. * difficulty peeing.

I take them sometime myself (for the same symptoms as the article) and I really notice the drowsiness - even though it differs from time to time. So I really limit usage.

> Even my lifestyle in my early 20s was a confounding issue. Did I party too hard? Did that era of my life alter my brain chemistry in a way that made me irreparably damaged?

Long-term effects of recreational drugs use (this includes alcohol I would say) have be studied quite a bit I believe not much last-long effects have been found. So don't worry about it, it does not alter your brain permanently.

Finally I like to say that what helped the author a lot is just a shift in focus to personal well-being. Any shift in focus helps in most cases. Taking up dancing, playing guiter, camping, whatever, can also make you feel like you can breath again. Hyperfocus, on any kind of activity, can be damaging in the long run for most people. Variety is the spice (& fresh air) of life. But note that hyperfocus includes hyperfocus on personal health, well-being and mental health issues, etc. This can also be damaging and anxiety inducing, as you try to start "fixing" everything and trying to "understand" all your root cause in a infinite loop, start comparing with others, etc. So limit the time spend there as well, I would say.

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

#93

Post by mola »

PragmaticPulp wrote: post #84
Wagthesam wrote: post #3

This is quite raw and I'm actually somewhat afraid to share this. But I think sleep apnea is criminally under-discussed and underdiagnosed. It can f your life up sideways and can take years to diagnose. So sharing my story and hope I can advocate for it. If you have sleep apnea, no amount of sleep gadgets, good habits, exercise, will help you. You must fix the root cause

> But I think sleep apnea is criminally under-discussed and underdiagnosed. I agree that it’s under-diagnosed in people who have it, but it’s actually discussed very widely across social media and in person. I have some sleep medicine professionals in my extended social circle. It’s common to hear stories of people coming in convinced that they must have sleep apnea after reading about it online, but their sleep stud…

This comment is very important. I wouldn't trust social media reports as a source for understanding prevalence of conditions. The mimetic dynamics can cause severe exaggeratiobs and over representation. Even the thread here can make a large effect on baseless self diagnosis (I'm not doubting the OP) which many actors will happily take advantage of for their own personal gains.

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

#95

Post by Wagthesam »

theonething wrote: post #89
Wagthesam wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

if you have the money, Dr. Kasey Li is the best sleep apnea surgeon in the bay area, possibly the world. He is the protoge of dr Christian Guilleminaul who is the founder of sleep apnea medicine. He does MMA and EASE, both of which solve structural issues if you have narrow airways. He also won't do it unless he thinks it will truly make a difference. One friend went to him for a MMA but he turned him away and referr…

He doesn't accept any insurance?

It is very difficult to get his procedures covered as he normally charges more than the customary rate and is out of network. I guess most of his procedures are out of pocket

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

#96

Post by 2devnull »

Wagthesam wrote: post #3

This is quite raw and I'm actually somewhat afraid to share this. But I think sleep apnea is criminally under-discussed and underdiagnosed. It can f your life up sideways and can take years to diagnose. So sharing my story and hope I can advocate for it. If you have sleep apnea, no amount of sleep gadgets, good habits, exercise, will help you. You must fix the root cause

Flonase and air filters rather than cpap is the answer for many it seems. I wish the sleep medicine doctors and apnea specialists were more knowledgeable about that.

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

#97

Post by monroewalker »

bluSCALE4 wrote: post #86
monroewalker wrote: post #42

Thank you for sharing! Skimmed for now, but saving this to read later. I've had a history as well of never getting good sleep so I'm curious to see what your experience was and the steps you've taken. A few things I've done that have helped a bunch: - Using BreatheRight nasal strips every night - Latex earplugs ("Mack's Pillow Soft Silicone Earplugs"). I could never sleep with foam earplugs in my ears but these are g…

I bought an Aranet recently and at night, it can go as high as 1600. I figured not wasn't as important at night but this article has me wondering. I will say that I've been going to the office 2-3 days a week and I've been sleeping a whole lot better lately. I don't recall when horrific sleep started but I'm fairly certain it was pre pandemic.

That sounds pretty high! Have you made any changes or do you still have it hit 1600 while you're sleeping? I was never able to find a good source for what levels to target, but I did come across this study [1] which claims to have measured a difference in cognitive function the next day for people who slept with avg c02 levels at 835 ppm vs the group at 660 ppm. I don't have the background to judge the legitimacy of the study, so it could be bogus for all I know. But keeping the window has been enough for me to keep the levels below 800 so I've tried kept that as the limit

[1] https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/26452168/

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

#98

Post by nick123567 »

legojoey17 wrote: post #85
Wagthesam wrote: post #3

This is quite raw and I'm actually somewhat afraid to share this. But I think sleep apnea is criminally under-discussed and underdiagnosed. It can f your life up sideways and can take years to diagnose. So sharing my story and hope I can advocate for it. If you have sleep apnea, no amount of sleep gadgets, good habits, exercise, will help you. You must fix the root cause

Thanks for sharing this story, it's very encouraging to read. I really resonate with this as I'm currently facing similar struggles and overall just feeling like I'm sinking and zombie-like. I had an at-home test that was not positive for obstructive sleep apnea so I landed on a 6-month queue for a test at a sleep lab (hello from over in Vancouver). I've felt really discouraged by that because it's left me back at "I…

Get tested for diabetes just in case? Urination and dry mouth are symptoms that I see you mentioned which don't seem to be apnea related. I'm not a doctor.

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

#99

Post by Llamamoe »

Wagthesam wrote: post #3

This is quite raw and I'm actually somewhat afraid to share this. But I think sleep apnea is criminally under-discussed and underdiagnosed. It can f your life up sideways and can take years to diagnose. So sharing my story and hope I can advocate for it. If you have sleep apnea, no amount of sleep gadgets, good habits, exercise, will help you. You must fix the root cause

You're doing good work. I've had Sleep Disordered Breathing since childhood from a mix of recessed jaws and allergies, and my journey was a decline from extreme ADHD in my 10s, to overwhelming fatigue in my early 20s, to essentially dementia.

Nobody offered or was willing to test for anything. I was gaslit and sent to psychiatrists any time I tried seeing a doctor.

By now, it's not my only debilitating chronic condition, and no matter PAP, meds or how hard I try, I'm not capable of basic functioning. Making appointments is extremely difficult, earning money is unrealistic.

In all honesty, I think it's probably too late for me. I have nobody who'd take care of me, and I can't do it myself. My life will eventually end by my own hand, and I don't understand why I'm putting it off.

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

#100

Post by Llamamoe »

searchableguy wrote: post #39
bboygravity wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Interesting. I bet close to all young skinny people with sleep apnea must remain undiagnosed. My generalist doc basically said "if you really insist we can do a polysomnography, but I'm pretty sure you don't have it, you're young, skinny and sporty. There isn't really much that helps that you can do about it anyway". I did insist and it turned out that I do have it. The changes in life I experienced are similar to yo…

Many advice trying a CPAP device first instead of going for a sleep study if you suspect apnea for this exact reason. The sleep tests are expensive and often not accurate.

The problem is that CPAP really sucks, and if you're more on the UARS side(arousals over apneas and hypopneas), or have poor nasal breathing, it's likely to disrupt your sleep more than it helps it.
Post reply on HN