How dramatic!? Right? It sounds like the most boring novel ever.
But all my home remedies and DIY fixes aside, I have here a very serious subject. Sleep Apnea. Believe me now when I write: Although I may link things for people to buy or just to give them a better idea of what to look for, and I will do the same in this article, I CANNOT stress enough how important it is that you understand the devastating effects of snoring and sleep apnea.
There will be no quasi guru bullcrap in this article. I will state only what I’ve seen, experienced, and had to helplessly live around for years.
I have been more than fortunate to not be a snorer or suffer from any form of sleep apnea. I almost sleep too well. As long as I stay away from things like extremely mentally stimulating things like… well… nerd moment, but DBZ Xenoverse video games or something of that sort. For some reason I can’t get that out of my head at night back when I had time to play.
Anyways, while I was growing up, me and one of my brothers had to share a room. If you know anything about snoring, you know what I had to deal with. Later I became so used to it that now I require a sound machine to help me sleep. That’s pretty funny, you gotta admit.
When we were younger, we saw cartoons and shows where people would be snoring and all you knew was that they were ‘sleeping hard’. At times, some of these people seemed like they could fall asleep whenever they pleased – like some narcoleptic insurance incident waiting to happen.
That seems all well and fine. Though, it turns out that this is actually interrupted sleep. These people can’t even fall into a full REM cycle due to the constant vibration coming from their nose and throats. Their breathing is rapid or nonexistent.
My brother did this for years. When he was asleep – you knew it! As his life grew busier and busier, weight seemed to be an issue. Don’t get me wrong, this guy is built and strong as an ox. But weight it weight. And lack of sleep is just that – a weight on you.
Here’s how that cycle begins. Your body lacks energy because you aren’t getting into your REM cycle. Without going super technical and having to quote every article I read on this, and every sleep study exam I’ve had to go through: Without deep-true-real-REM cycle sleep, your brain cannot produce the right chemical drip that heals you, nor the ones that keep you sane.
Your hormones become thrown off over time. 10 years of a bad habit, no matter if self-induced or not, finally (on a broad average) leads to problems surfacing.
When you lack energy, you eat for energy. You do things to help this, like with fats and carbs. If you’re unlucky, and you despise water (which traffics our insulin), then you end up also a diabetic along with all these other wonderful host of problems.
So, over eating leads to weight gain. You can’t get rid of your internal (fat stored) water, so you get to look extra fluffy and trap extra toxins. Men’s biology is one that even commercials make fun of when it comes to men and women trying to lose weight. The guy usually wins because he has these high-t levels that keep him and his weight in control. If he does just a small attempt to lose weight, he rocks it!
It is unfortunate and true, however. What my brother started lacking was the proper t levels because his body wasn’t producing the proper chemicals. How are lymph nodes and vital organs supposed to do their jobs when they aren’t being replenished after the simple abuses that come from the day-to-day diets.
How can your body handle the carbs that you SO crave? So, weight gain is just one-single-issue. Without proper sleep, expect weight gain and plenty of fluid.
How you handle stress
How you handle stress when you don’t have proper sleep? Well, this one is obvious. We’ve all had the ‘wake up on the wrong side of the bed’ experiences, haven’t we? Imagine waking up on the ‘wrong side’ every day! That’s what these people experience.
Even the most mild-mannered of people can only go so far with do-wellers and well-wishers, even if they are so. This doesn’t mean that they only take out their frustrations on you – it means that they may repress even that and take it out on themselves. Here comes a cycle.
Lack of sleep – agitation – anger – depression – food – weight gain – actual bad health.
Now, we aren’t knocking the healthy ‘I got a lil weight on me’ people. Nope, not me. I am one of those! For my body height, I am supposed to weigh something like 136-143lb, I weigh anywhere from 148-154 (156 on holiday).
We’re talking obese here. The medical term. Not the ‘i don’t date thick chicks’ douche. Being obese is tolerable, fixable, workable, and you can knock that out all you want! Until you can’t. Until it catches up to you.
I practice moderation with most things, and some things I don’t. I will pay for these things later on and already am paying for my at one time LOVE for soft drinks. Not just one a day, more like 8. Not to get off track, but thanks to my reduction of these, I’ve kept my weight down and am now destroying my teeth much less.
But even if someone with sleep apnea practices moderation, their bodies still can’t handle things the ways our’s usually will. It is a retention game that they just can’t seem to shake.
Your immune system suffers
Without proper sleep, your immune system begins to tank. The vitamins you take in, even with supplements, begin to help less and less. It’s kind of like how Rocky drank the eggs instead of cooking them. Drinking egg yolks provides maybe a quarter of the benefits of a cooked egg. You get less out of what you got.
So what vitamin C you take in is basically 3/4 thrown to the toilet. A, and B are already a little harder of vitamins for some of us to get in every day at times, so you know they aren’t getting enough of that if their body can’t process it the same as it should.
Finally, goes your health
It can happen all the sudden. After years of this, when it does happen, it seems like ‘all the sudden’, but secretly, its been building up for this horrific crescendo that is your health fading.
My brother runs a business, was attending schooling, also working on a side job to complete his schooling. Running a business properly means you already have no life, to speak broadly (but for business owners, you know how it is…). But taking on a new job as well as a mental education. Draining is a word that comes to mind.
With his health secretly, stealthily failing him, then came sinus infection season. Well, what chance did he have of fighting it? Our family is odd in a way. We have great immune systems but horrible sinus issues. We rarely get the flu and all that junk. If we do get a bug, it is so gone within a short time, we consider it just a quick bout of feeling like crud. However, this also gives you a false sense of invincibility to the commons and not so commons of health issues.
With the infection in high gear, lack of sleep, weight suddenly barreling out of control, passing out in his vehicle when he was parked in a few parking lots, his wife sprung into action and forced him to go to the doctor.
The first diagnosis
Well, at first it was an onslaunt of medicines to help with the obvious and then some tests. The tests are rigorous and reveal that he has pounds of fluid around his heart. His blood sugar and blood pressure we absolute crap. Worst of all, to some doctors this appears to be just a person who is sick and doesn’t take care of themselves. “why he must eat two sticks of butter a day!” His answer: eat a salad. Get hungry again? eat another salad.
Na, it’s a bit deeper than that, doc. After finding another doctor who was ready to do some deep investigation, one of the tests he wanted to run was a sleep study.
Here comes the uplifting part
I know, i know… If you’ve read this far, you’re probably like, “when does this get better? Did he die? this is depressing me!”
No, no, it does get better, trust me. So thankful it got better.
Sleep studies are considered one of the worst things to have to do. People have to go and stay at some medical hotel hell where assistants to higher assistants probe you the entire time they want you to ‘try to sleep’. It’s unnatural y’hear!
However, technology and medicine once again prove that with the correct thinking, that they can make a machine that does all that work for them over the course of multiple nights! Relieved? So was my wife when she had to do her sleep study. Yet another victim of sleep apnea, but that’s another story.
The results of this take home test showed that of the 3 nights, he gained only a few hours, if that, of REM cycle sleep. Basically, no matter how much plus or minus, mistakable evidence, possible errors, that could have occurred, he fell into a region of sleep deprivation that no one should be near.
Running around being Mrs or Mr 100% all the time, best worker, rocking their job and still somehow maintaining a healthy life outside of work, just seriously sometimes is not realistic. Here’s a funny statement though: in the business world, appearances ARE everything. People invest in you, the idea of you, they evaluate you constantly. You are their leader at times! If you are not on you r A, B, or even C game. You will lose. And not just petty people, but your health and your family.
Taking care of you
I can’t begin to tell you (but I’ll try) how many things changed after his evaluation. The sleep study company worked with the doctor and hooked him up with a machine with all the right settings, and wi-fi capable readings and the ability to basically just e-mail your codes to the doctor. That’s pretty friggin sweet there.
Within three weeks my brother went back to his original doctor and totally shocked the fella. It’s like he was looking at two different people’s charts. One was near heart attack zone (seriously). The other was called a word that most don’t hear with larger body weights, “healthy”.
I had never seen my brother get to the point where he was having to nap in between his jobs during the day up until that point. After his CPAP machine took hold, I never saw it again either.
Not to give too much of his personal life away, his t-levels increased and so did certain counts, to the point where those counts were called ‘super’.
It is enough, if you know someone in this kind of situation, to make you cry. I love medicine (of any form) that shows real, true effects. Not ones that have to off-set everything else just to make one thing improve for a moment.
One note, his hair will never be the same. LOL. The masks have drawbacks, yes. They make getting rid of the strap line a little hard, but it’s either that or a horrible life of not knowing your potential and early death. Easy choice.
If you feel like you want to test and want the ability to test others and keep the machine, instead of having to be on a waiting list or pay dearly, take a look at this: http://amzn.to/2DJjrWp
There are some much easier-going tactics, such as nose strips, plugs and hoses that have proven to help those with partial apnea: http://amzn.to/2BDgGEj
I won’t get into quality sleep right now, nor trying to link you with studies or products, but I just want you to know, that no matter what you got out of this read, I hope you understand now how dangerous the snore is. It’s not just an irritation – it is a sign.
Bless you all and take care of yourselves.
Cody Homesteader 