Sleep Depervation Part 1

To start this blog post out I think I need to feel everybody in who doesn't personally know me. Well I've had problems with sleeping since I was a little kid. Probably since about age 8. That's about the time when my friends use to complain that I snored like a bulldozer when I spent the night at their house. I've always woken up in the morning with headaches and I was finally diagnosed with sleep apnea about 2 and half years ago. Ever since I was diagnosed and I got a CPAP machine my quality of life has been better.

In October of 2007 I had surgery on my nose to try and open up the airway more. It helped a little bit and helped out mostly during the day when I didn't have the CPAP machine on. In October of 2008 I proceeded to have the second half my surgery to have a U3P procedure done. Basically they just roto-rooter everything in your throat cutting out as much tissue as possible. The second surgery was painful but was still worth it.

So now that's the past. Let's get on with the real story. Today my total sleep count for the past 4 consecutive days adds up to about 17 hours. This morning I woke up about 3:30 AM with a painful headache right behind and above my left eye. Tapping on my fore head with my finger seem to not indicate a sinus problem but that doesn't rule allergies so I go down stairs and down 3 Motrin, a Claritin, some shots of Nasonex in each nostril, and a tall glass of OJ. Of course my head doesn't start to go away till around 5:45 AM and by now I'm awake so I grab the remote to start channel surfing.

Today around lunch time I started to getting over active hearing. I could have sworn I was hearing voices. I'm not a person who normally gets the mid-afternoon crash since I usually don't load up on sugar for breakfast or lunch so I'm tired when 5 or 6 o'clock rolls around. My coherentness has become sub-par. Probably at the same level a normal person would have after maybe 2 beers. Driving to work this morning time seemed to skip. Like I may look down a side road and then I would blink while turning my head back to the front and time would seem to have past for maybe a micro second. I think this is called microsleep. Another symptom I've noticed today is that I've been extremely thirsty. I haven't been hungry for calories and carbs since I try to eat more protein and fiber to slow down digestion.

Now that it's after 10 o'clock PM and I'm starting to wind down I think about the list of things I've accomplished today and what I still need to do tonight. College homework is just going to have to take a side-step for another night as I don't have the concentration to make educated
decisions about "Computer Hardware Architecture" although I just had a two conversation to IT today about the same subject today. My final symptom today that's just started since I've been typing this is numbness in my extremities and muscle cramps in my shoulders and neck. I feel like I'm blinking more to keep my contacts wet.

Sleep deprivation is nothing new to me and I guess it would scare a lot of people. I know of it all too well and I like documenting the stages I go through as each time seems to be a little different.

Over the years I've looked at alternate sleep patterns trying to find ways to push the human body to the limit. Time awake means more time to learn but how much will you retain. I've read stories about some of my mentors in life like Albert Einstein, Nichola Tesla, and daVinci all practiced polyphasic sleep patterns.

Anyway, off to dream land I go soon and hope for more than 5 hours of sleep tonight.