when i get my sleep apnea treated will my grades improve?
im getting my cpap machine on monday and I want to know how will it make me feel? Im in my first year of college and as things start to get more hard and I want to get a job soon, but it seems like way to much to deal with. will that change? will i have more motivation? will i be able to study and do my homework with out feeling like I HAVE to drag myself to do it? i hope someone can help me. thank you.
Tagged with: cpap machine • homework • job • motivation
Filed under: Sleep Apnea Machine Questions
I’ve had sleep apnea for years now. Mine is obstructive sleep apnea, AKA "OSA". Once I got used to the machine, I’d wake up with an abundance of energy. I remember as a kid waking up on christmas morning, so excited, just a little ball of nervous energy, hyper even, and I couldn’t wait to open presents. I was like that after I got on my CPAP machine. I was finally sleeping through the night and I felt great. My girl-friend laughed at me because I was just bouncing off the walls almost. My short term memory came back, I lost a bunch of weight, and life just generally improved. I thought that was the end of apnea problems, but alas, not so. I learned that every so often you have to go get re-checked and your pressures have to be adjusted in order to keep your machine working for you. I just had a new sleep study this past Friday night. There are some things you can do to help yourself. Lose weight. Quit smoking. Excersise a little, cut out the breads, potatoes and pastas. Cut out the seconds. Quit drinking soda. Beer is bad for weight loss, I know what you’re thinking, I know, I lived on beer in college, find a nice light beer, LOL. Don’t drink any caffeine before bed time and make sure you allow yourself plenty of time for rest. Everything changes when you have OSA. Can’t go home with anyone or take anyone home because you’ll always have this machine to drag around with you. I’ve been there done that and sometimes it’s easier to just go home alone than it is to explain that you wear this mask when you sleep. I love to camp and apnea changed that for a long time too. Now they make machines for that. I have a D.C. plug that goes right into my cigarette lighter on my truck. They even make battery packs for your machine that last around 20 hours or so. If you travel outside the U.S. make sure your machine is ok in other countries, sometimes the electricity is different and you can burn your machine up, and you might want to find out if your machine adjusts automatically to altitude changes before you take off up to the mountains or down to the coast. Don’t even get me started on flying on the airlines with your CPAP machine, let me just say that the airline security people have no heart. They love to drag your machine,hoses and mask out of the bag and hold them up for God and everyone to see. I tried to beat that by checking my machine with my luggage, they lost it. I spent the first couple of days of my vacation without my CPAP and it was awful. The best thing you can do is put your hose and your mask in a zip-loc bag, that way the security guy is just holding a zip loc in one hand instead of holding your hose in one hand and your mask in the other. Anyway, I’ve over stayed my welcome here. Add me to your contacts and if you ever have a question, you can call on me. Two more things, never put your mask or your hose in the dishwasher and look around on yahoo and/or myspace for sleep apnea groups. They’re full of good info. Good luck.
Absolutely! If you’ve had sleep apnea you haven’t been getting proper rest. Your body needs that with just the normal challenges of day to day living. With what you’re going through now you need it that much more.
God bless and good luck. I’m sure you’ll do well.
I am sure that it will. Have you gone to a sleep study before that told you how many times you wake up in the middle of the night not breathing? that basicly is what sleep apnea is.
anyway, you will be experiencing some more restful sleep than you had been getting in the past, that that should of course help you consintrate a bit more in school and stay awake for your homework.
in the mean time, you can have a fan facing your face as you sleep at night, it forces that little flap in the back of your throat to open, so that you have a constant stream of air, and are not waking up all night.
hope that helped.
I am sure that it will. Have you gone to a sleep study before that told you how many times you wake up in the middle of the night not breathing? that basicly is what sleep apnea is.
anyway, you will be experiencing some more restful sleep than you had been getting in the past, that that should of course help you consintrate a bit more in school and stay awake for your homework.
in the mean time, you can have a fan facing your face as you sleep at night, it forces that little flap in the back of your throat to open, so that you have a constant stream of air, and are not waking up all night.
hope that helped.