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

writing.samsonhu.com

271–280 of 370 posts

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

#271

I don't know if I actually buy this cause and effect. The writing and other hints sounded like some kind of neuroticism unrelated to sleep apnea. I wouldn't be surprised if it comes back in the future and the author "finds" some other cause such as eating gluten or anything else en repeat.

I'm also curious as to the conclusions drawn -- it seems like there were a lot of relevant potentially confounding variables changed. Was there a followup sleep study? Or something to confirm the suspicion of an alternative form of OSA (upper airway something something)?

I don't think I have OSA, and I've always had poor sleep (ongoing), but going on allergy immunotherapy shots has tremendously improved my quality of life.

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

#272

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I used to be known as someone that partied hard. Even at work I was the guy on the technical teams that found all the degenerates on the sales teams to go out with. Then after the hangovers got too much (probably due to sleep apnea), I switched to extreme sports. Snowboarding in high consequence terrain, kitesurfing, motorcycle track riding, dirt biking single track. Anything that took the edge off and similarly made…

Alcohol and surprisingly even 0% alcohol beer (not sure how much I can attribute to nocebo effect) completely wrecks my sleep. My nasal mucus thickens so much that I can't breathe properly when lying down. And it's not like I'm not drinking water and keeping hydration in check when I drink. I gave up on alcohol completely. I confirm that exercises do help. Anecdotally last week I woke up with an obstructed nostril. I…

This sounds like a mild allergy, i would look into that.

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

#273

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> You must fix the root cause The main cause of sleep apnea is obesity, which ruins your health by just about every other metric you could measure as well. It’s good advice to address sleep apnea, but you’d have to dig a little deeper to get to the root cause (in most cases).

As far as I understand it, obesity can aggravate sleep apnea, but actually does not cause sleep apnea, so it is not at all the main cause. For obstructive sleep apnea, say, if you had a perfectly formed jaw, teeth, airway, etc., you could get obese without having sleep apnea. Which means that obese people shouldn't rely on losing weight as a sleep apnea cure, as obesity is indeed not the main cause, but can likely se…

Your understanding is wrong, obesity directly causes sleep apnea.

> There is a linear correlation between obesity and OSA. In obese people, fat deposits in the upper respiratory tract narrow the airway; there is a decrease in muscle activity in this region, leading to hypoxic and apneic episodes, ultimately resulting in sleep apnea.

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5836788/

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

#274
post #149
post #146

I recently discovered that I’m a slow metabolizer of caffeine. Via my raw 23andme data. https://you.23andme.com/tools/data/?query=rs762551 C/C genotype. https://www.geneticlifehacks.com/liver-detox-genes-cyp1a2/#C... Instead of coffee being a net positive, it actually takes caffeine 4X the time to process through my body and increases my cardiac event risk by 2X. I can drink a cup of coffee at 8am and it still impact…

Are there any services like 23andme that are more strict when it comes to data privacy or that allow me complete ownership of the data? I would love this type of analysis even at a higher cost but I am scared of what might happen in the future to this data on me and children

I bought a kit on Amazon from a major provider. It was a Father’s Day promo. So it’s safe to assume at least half of purchases were gifts. And Amazon FBA does not share buyer data with the seller. Plus then I used all anonymous services, like junk email, VPN to sign up.

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

#275
post #139

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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 g…

I'm not a person who went from high functioning to struggling. I'm a person who went from no longer able to attend high school to ten years of being trapped at home by progressively debilitating fatigue. I've tried hundreds of things over the years, but it's like playing whack-a-mole or trying to slay the mythical hydra. For every improvement I manage, I fail two. No matter what I do, it isn't enough. I can barely ta…

I'm pretty sure you've already looked into this but I couldn't scroll past without dropping in my thoughts; feel free to ignore them. I'm dealing with similar problems as a post-covid sequelae, in my early 20s with debilitating problems and also having to get to the root cause myself as doctors are clueless. Have you had your gut microbiome tested (with zonulin + IgA + parasites, fungi and viruses)? If so, feel free to plug it into cfsremission.com to see if something pops out. Oral microbiome and health? SIBO test? Candida? Immunological check up? ANA? EBV or other latent viruses reactivation? Elimination diet / carnivore? You could also try FMT if all else fails (either expensive at a clinic or DIY at home). Good luck man, you're stronger than most of us.

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

#276

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…

Look at the book 'Nutrition and Physical Degeneration' [1] by Weston Price [2], a dentist who travelled around the world in the 1930's comparing facial development and health of traditional cultures eating unprocessed diets to those who switched to a western diet.

There's also the more recent book 'Jaws' [3] looking at the orthodontic industry and ideas John Mew.

[1] https://gutenberg.net.au/ebooks02/0200251h.html [2] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weston_A._Price [3] https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/35804366-jaws

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

#277

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

My father regularly sleeps 5-6 hours a night, and negatively impacts his energy and mental acuity. He also snores like a looney tune. My partners over the years have told me that I snore, especially when I'm sick. I rarely sleep more than 7 hours a night. After reading James Nestor's _Breath_, I learned that snoring and sleep apnea are a modern disease; crooked teeth and under-expanded palettes mean our narrow nasal…

Do you have any results from the device?

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

#278

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've rationalized that this is a combination of getting older, ADHD, and childhood trauma. Will have to look more into apnea.

I actually have a write-up on a pet theory that a substantial proportion of ADHD cases are likely undiagnosed non-apneic sleep disordered breathing: https://gist.github.com/Asmageddon/4a952260c0fc9875f477d6813...

Why not measure REM cycles in your analysis is disrupted phases of sleep is the root cause of the memory issues?

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

#279

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The intensity of my sleep apnea varies from night to night, and you might be similar? Based on oxygen levels, mine also varies from subclinial to "medium" apnea. I was deemed not to have sleep apnea based on the take-home test or the in-hospital test... but I wore my oxygen-logging ring during the in-hospital test to check it was calibrated to the hospital's equipment (it was), and the specialist then diagnosed me ba…

What brand is your ring? I know some doctors that would love that!

Likely an Oura Ring: https://ouraring.com/

It sounds like one of the better sleep trackers (and not just sleep) if you aren't bothered by the whole "send detailed and continuous personal information to the cloud" thing. I'd recommend staying away from that kind of thing, though..

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

#280

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good to know. I almost went down the route of getting adhd meds. Yeah a baseline is key. Having a personality baseline is important as well, a personality change was one of the biggest indicators something was very very wrong

I was not saying anything against ADHD meds. They are very important if you require them as I do. It is really important to understand your body and yourself. Sleep apnea is not a joke and people miss the signs. Major personality changes are a huge red flag.

got it, thanks for making that clear. I was under the assumption that adhd masks sleep apnea, but didn't realize you can also have both
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