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Fitful nightly sleep linked to chronic inflammation, hardened arteries

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Re: Fitful nightly sleep linked to chronic inflammation, hardened arteries

#261

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> If your doctor tells you to do a sleep study, do it. All I got in return is a $500 inconclusive.

They're slowly moving to "at home" sleep studies, so hopefully the cost will come down. Essentially they just loan you a bunch of monitors on a chest belt, teach you how to put it on, and you return it the next day for your consultation. Here's a video showing how to install the monitor: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FHvydhYu85o It is still a "developing area" but I think it will be the norm eventually. It *should…

Yeah, a couple of years ago, I had an at-home sleep study. It was free for me with Kaiser insurance, so I guess the cost was neglectable.

Re: Fitful nightly sleep linked to chronic inflammation, hardened arteries

#262

If your doctor tells you to do a sleep study, do it. If, as a result, they tell you to get a CPAP, get it. Those things are life-changing. I felt like an old man at 50 years old. My back was so stiff I couldn't put on my socks. When I got out of bed in the morning I felt so fragile, like my joints were all inflamed - especially my Achilles' tendons. I was too tired to do anything beyond 6 pm. Now, 51, I feel totally…

That said, it's not always a magic bullet. I got a cpap after a sleep study found I had 80+ breathing interruptions in the short overnight test window. It easily brought them down to The value is absolutely there in the greatly reduced likelihood of death in my sleep, and the white noise is better than snoring when sleeping around others. But I wouldn't want to get people's hopes up about it providing them the bad sl…

Yeah, I've been provided with a CPAP machine for a week, and although it reduces the breath interruptions, just like in your case, it does not improve the quality of the sleep perceivably, just like in your case.

So I decided not to buy it after the week of the free test drive.

Re: Fitful nightly sleep linked to chronic inflammation, hardened arteries

#263

If your doctor tells you to do a sleep study, do it. If, as a result, they tell you to get a CPAP, get it. Those things are life-changing. I felt like an old man at 50 years old. My back was so stiff I couldn't put on my socks. When I got out of bed in the morning I felt so fragile, like my joints were all inflamed - especially my Achilles' tendons. I was too tired to do anything beyond 6 pm. Now, 51, I feel totally…

I wonder if it would be helpful to allow people who experience sleep issues to just get a CPAP machine and try it out, instead of having to go through a sleep study.

It's already just like that here in california. They schedule a free in-home sleep study, then lend you (again, for free) a CPAP machine for a week. Then you decide if you want to keep (buy) it.

Re: Fitful nightly sleep linked to chronic inflammation, hardened arteries

#264
post #253
post #217

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I was interested to discover fairly recently that human jaws don't develop fully if you don't work them by chewing tough stuff growing up. Hence not enough space for wisdom teeth requiring surgical removal and other issues.

Very interesting. I wonder if there are hard and edible chewing gums to give young kids to help with this issue.

The chewing issue is part of it, but far from the whole picture. I recommend reading Jaws, as it's relevant to anyone whose kids will have dental work (which is basically everyone).

Part of the thesis is that braces and wisdom tooth removal are overapplied. People who disagree with that have to answer why ancient people and animals don't need similarly large amounts of dental work (answer: their jaws are a lot healthier than ours due to their environment.)

A related but separate issue in children is mouth breathing, and the chain of causation is also explained in the book.

Re: Fitful nightly sleep linked to chronic inflammation, hardened arteries

#265

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Academic research seems pretty confident now (in the last few years) that myopia is mostly caused by lack of exposure to daylight when very young.

My impression (from briefly skimming papers about this a few years ago) was that there is clear evidence that myopia is strongly related to not spending enough time outside as a child, but it’s not clear to what extent the effect being outside has on eye development is from focusing the eyes far away vs. being in very bright surroundings.

I believe that someone did some studies involving outdoor schools or similar, that was considered to differentiate between those factors - being outdoors and reading was better than being indoors and reading.

Re: Fitful nightly sleep linked to chronic inflammation, hardened arteries

#266
post #9

Fitful : Occurring in or characterized by intermittent bursts, as of activity; irregular. https://www.wordnik.com/words/fitful I am not a native speaker and had to look it up.

it's basically only applied in this context, ie to describe poor or restless sleep

Re: Fitful nightly sleep linked to chronic inflammation, hardened arteries

#267
post #209

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just got one a few weeks ago. Feel free to AMA. It stays on for me (medium to large size head, or so I think) -- tends to ride up on my forehead a bit over time but never had it fall off. It's got some adjustments that can be made to tighten/loosen the fit, on top of which there is some elastic in part of the band.

What (if anything) will it do in the absence of their service? Is there any open source software/open protocols/etc... for it? After being burned a few times, I've resolved to make hardware purchasing decisions based only on what a device can do using built-in/self-hosted software without any external services...but vendors make this difficult or impossible to figure out from the marketing glossies.

I don't believe it would function at all without their online services, it actually connects directly to wifi so it's definitely doing something important through that. I haven't looked into it but I bet everything is proprietary all the way up the stack.

And honestly that's fine for me. I don't plan on using this forever, I mainly got it since it is far cheaper than going through an actual therapist to do CBT for insomnia, so I figured I'd try this first.

Another thing to consider: It's definitely a wear item. It's got a fabric construction on the outside that seems to me like it will collect body oil + dirt/grime and it can't easily be cleaned. On the whole it feels kind of delicate. To be fair though, I don't know if it's possible to make a long lasting eeg based sleep tracker that's also comfortable to wear.

Re: Fitful nightly sleep linked to chronic inflammation, hardened arteries

#268

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What prompted you to get one? Did you have any sleep issues, or was it just curiosity? If you had sleep issues, did it help?

I've had more and more trouble sleeping as I age, and in the past 2 years it's gotten way worse. I've tried all manner of things and had put off getting the dreem for a while since it was so expensive. I've been to the doctor who sent me for blood tests and also referred me to a urologist, but everything came back normal. My specific issue: I get up in the night to urinate consistently at least 1-2 times per night, a…

The anxiety part of this sounds like something meditation could help with.

I've found this book (https://www.amazon.com/Mind-Illuminated-Meditation-Integrati...), at least the earlier stages to be quite helpful in regaining control of my thoughts.

Re: Fitful nightly sleep linked to chronic inflammation, hardened arteries

#269

Earlier quoted context omitted.

These 2 exercises worked for me. I did this 5 days a week (around 15-30 mins) and it took approx 4 weeks to get to a predominantly nose breathing situation. 1. Jog slowly at a pace that is comfortable while breathing through your nose. 2. Speed up pace until you feel like you will need to breathe through your mouth stay there for 10-20 seconds. 3. Slow your pace back down to where it's comfortable. 4. Adjust your pac…

When you say exhale, do you mean from the mouth or nose? Does it matter?

I tried both. In through nose out through mouth is easier and could be a good step before going only nose.

Re: Fitful nightly sleep linked to chronic inflammation, hardened arteries

#270
post #230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A wallet so full of cash it was causing backaches sitting on it.

You're getting downvoted because it's probably not the reason that the OP was talking about, but sitting on a large wallet - full of cash, receipts or just junk - is VERY bad for your back. And most people don't even realise the damage it's causing. Also, it's insidious in the way that a wallet starts out thin and flat, then slowly gathers remnants of daily life. Getting larger and bulkier by the day. I'm being total…

I never been able to put my wallet in my back pocket. It's so uncomfortable, especially when sitting down like you said. I can't understand how other people put up with it. I always carry it in my side pocket instead. It looks weird but at least I can sit comfortably.
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