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

131–140 of 370 posts

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

#131

Post by TecoAndJix »

grugagag wrote: post #71
Yeahsureok wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

*likely US based medical advice A sleep test is $100 ($75 USD) here.

Yes, it costs you an arm and a leg in the US if you don’t have a good insurance

My sleep study cost roughly $2300 with insurance (US). I purchased my own machine and supplies because going through insurance requires you to rent the machine. It phones home and if you don’t use it every night it impacts your coverage! No thanks. You need a script to purchase the machine too which you need a sleep study to get. Then billed periodically for supplies. Also, the initial settings they configured for the machine did not work and I had to adjust them on my own using an application called OSCAR. The website CPAP talk is a great place for folks who are new to using a machine btw. I definitely still feel ridiculous putting a mask on every night but it has been absolutely life changing for my energy levels and health. Please do not delay if you think you have this - I promise it is worth it!

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

#133

Post by KVFinn »

exodust wrote: post #75
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…

> BreatheRight nasal strips Never knew about these. I'm guessing you can't re-use the same strip each night? I don't have sleep issues apart from a bit of snoring and blocked nose. I might buy a pack of these to try.

>>Breathe Right nasal strips

>Never knew about these. I'm guessing you can't re-use the same strip each night?

I've been wearing the strips both day and night. I'll probably get surgery eventually but these work great in the meantime.

There's a bunch of much cheaper generic-brands on Amazon that work just as well too. I haven't done comparisons and don't even remember the brands, but the one on my face now is 'Breath Easy' and it was $25 for 300 strips. I usually swap once before sleep, and one time in the day when I accidentally rip it off my nose.

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

#135

Post by saiya-jin »

diob wrote: post #69
rubicon33 wrote: post #28

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can I ask what symptoms you had as a skinny / sporty individual with sleep apnea?

Needing 11-12 hours of sleep a night, frequent dreams of drowning or not being able to breath, daily headaches, falling asleep no matter how much you wish to remain awake (such as during school lecture or driving). . . And if you can, have your partner watch you sleep. Mine was what did it for me, she said I worried her half to death, and thought one day she would wake up to find me dead (I frequently would stop brea…

My boss has this, he is 35 and not fat at all. His father died from heart attack when he was young. Poor sleep (more like never enough), for some probably unrelated reason got much worse during covid. Always a bit tired, always subpar with physical workouts, but never as extreme as falling asleep when you don't want to. Mentally working on maybe 50%, but he is super smart so still plenty of room. He snored according to his exwife.

He went for tests, first time doctors thought machine was broken, his readings on apnea were off the charts. Second test confirmed it. Worst case they had seen, now has machine for sleeping and feels 100% better on everything. He believes his father had the same and its what killed him. Internal organs getting hammered over years, especially heart.

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

#137

Post by petesergeant »

I’m a member of an entrepreneurs forum where every so often someone will ask about improving their sleep. People are willing to try literally any pill they can source or rare Chinese medicine or vinegar diet or whatever, but what they are usually not willing to do is go and get a sleep study done and find out if they have sleep apnea.

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

#138

Post by oarfish »

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

> If you have sleep apnea, no amount of sleep gadgets, good habits, exercise, will help you

Probably not what you mean, but this is untrue as there can be different causes for sleep apnea. For instance obesity, which would be helped by exercise.

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

#139

Post by Lio »

Llamamoe wrote: post #99
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 condit…

It's definitely not too late for you mate, no matter how it feels in the short term.

You're putting it off because deep down your subconscious still knows that you are important and have innate value. When things are dark it's easy to forget it but the world needs you, people you know need you and love you. I suspect it's a trick of the mind that hides that from us temporarily.

Anything you do will help and it will get better. Take each day as it comes and note every small win.

Try, fail, try again, fail again but better.

What you are feeling will slowly pass and fade as unlikely as that may sound.

Like a cut healing, one day you just notice that you can remember good things again. Then you wonder why you ever felt that way and you'll be able to keep an eye out in case it ever happens again.

My own sleep problems are caused by allergies, I think. Nasal inflammation stops me sleeping but I also suspect it plays a direct role in depression.

Little things that have helped me:

  * Regularly vacuuming bedding.
  * Boil washing bedding to kill off any dust mites.
  * Vacuuming the house in general.
  * Getting more exercise, even just going for a walk every day is good.  Being outside also helps boost vitamin D.
  * Cleaning teeth properly including flossing.  That's to help with gum inflammation which helps with inflammation in general.
  * Drinking more water.  I like keeping a bottle of cold water in the fridge.  I read somewhere that dehydration was bad for inflammation.
How much of that is just anecdotally helpful I don't know but it's simple and cheap to do.

Oh and don't forget that you can talk to people confidentially when you need to:

https://www.psychologytoday.com/us/basics/suicide/suicide-pr...

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

#140

Post by dsego »

spirit557 wrote: post #118
findthewords wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've been dealing with similar problems for a few years now, ever since all my wisdom teeth were removed.

I have wondered if children's diets precipipate this problem. Because so many kids grow up with varying levels of processsed or pre-digested foods (pulverized fruit pouches, not enough crunchy whole foods that require chewing etc) the jaw does not develop fully - so wisdom teeth removals and orthodontics for expansion seems like standard of care nowadays - but really it should not be that way. These cases should be r…

Genetics, lack of breast feeding, soft foods, etc probably influence poor jaw development. Also mouth breathing due to allergies and nasal blockages, bad tongue placement, probably other factors. My snoring improved a lot in adult years when I learned to keep my mouth closed and breath through my nose. My tongue position was so bad that an ent suggested tongue ablation, but instead I learned to deliberately thrust my tongue against my palate so it doesn't collapse back. It's difficult because in childhood I basically learned to mouth breathe because my nose was always blocked. That probably caused a lot of my problems with cavities and poor jaw growth. I was also bottle fed mushy foods for the first few years, instead of having more solid foods. I did use a night palatal expander as a kid, but wasn't too consistent in turning the key and my parents weren't really persistent with it.
Post reply on HN