Sleep Apnea Sufferers

[Julian G]

Hello all!

I'm journalism student writing a short feature on sleep disorders such as sleep apnea.
I'd really appreciate talking to anyone with the condition and what it means to have it etc.
If anyone is interested to talk please PM me with your email address,
thanks alot!

[JackTheSnorer]

Can we talk about it in the forum? That we everyone benefits! You can post in the members only section if you don't want the world to be able to see it yet before you publish.

[Julian G]

yeh ok sure.

so an open invitation for anyone to talk about their experiences of sleep apnea, as long as I can use people's full names and where they're from?

[Joe McManus]

I think it would help to start off with some guiding questions so we know what you'd like to hear.

[Julian G]

ok...
Any one willing to talk would be very much appreciated. If you don't want your details disclosed on here just PM me with them and ill add them to the article. As the article is 1000 words I most probably won't need anymore then 4 people.

1.How does it affect your everyday life?
2. Describe an average nights’ sleep – how disturbed is your sleep generally?
3. How long was it was it until you found out you had sleep apnea?

thanks everyone!

[Gaspin]

Hi Julian and welcome

I've only just been diagnosed and started CPAP 30 Dec.

1. I used to wake my wife (and myself) with thunderous snoring which affected our lives in every way a bedroom problem can. I also suffered from severe headaches on waking, with a bloated stomach like an over-inflated balloon about to pop.
My back and legs ached so much that bending to pick up anything below waist height was a MAJOR chore, often necessitating me sitting on the floor, assisted by furniture, walking stick, etc.
At work I usually had a good 30 minutes' nap at lunchtime, and sometimes would find a quiet spot in the afternoon too.

2. Aprt from being continually nudged and shouted at, I hardly noticed a thing at night. A bit of sweating, sore throat, tossing and turning, plus a bit of indigestion. I used to put that down to my being 4 stone overweight!

3. I could say all my life, but really I suppose it's 4 years: since I stopped smoking and my weight ballooned from 13 to 17 stone, and my collar size went from 15 to 17.5.