What are people getting for time in sleep cycles through the night? I haven’t been riding much at all over the past few years and as a result I’ve put on significant weight. I’ve started snoring rather badly this past year to the point that my girlfriend can’t sleep in the room even wearing earplugs. My dr ordered an in home sleep study that I tried to start the other night but one of the sensors was malfunctioning and I have to wait for another to be sent. According to my Garmin Felix my pulse ox dives at night to about 90% and, for example, last night I wanted to try to “catch up” on some sleep and this is what I got.
How old are you? While sleep is a big part of the equation…so is nutrition, I would look at your caloric intake and macros. Also have your doc test your thyroid levels.
EDIT. Read remainder of post after posting this. Looks like you’re already on your way!
Sleep apnea could be something to look in to. Common symptoms:
Morning headache
Chronic fatigue
Mood disorders
If you have a bed partner, do you snore? Ever wake up gasping for air? (You May not even realize you wake up)
OSA is a real thing that many people push aside and the “classic” OSA body habitus is not a requirement. Many downstream detrimental effects from the constant sympathetic nervous system activation that occurs in patients with OSA. (As the CO2 rises, SNS activation increases).
There is only so much you can do to reduce snoring.
Unless you don’t have sleep apnea you can improve your sleep by having an appropriate night routine - no screens before bedtime or TV. Nutrition is extremely important, what you eat at dinner makes a huge difference on your sleep quality
with all due respect to doctors, they always want to solve everything with treatments and stuff like that. Granted sometimes you need that when you have something chronic, but I found that with the right nutrition you can improve you health drastically. We all know nutrition is important but the majority of the times is overlooked. I used to snore at night, but all went away with the right nutrition
Every case is different, talk to your doctor but also I would recommend to read and do your research and look at your nutrition habits
I just really started to watch macros and I’ve started with a functional medicine dr. I have had a hypoactive thyroid for years and take synthroid every morning. I’m also an extremely reactive to egg, dairy and wheat from blood tests the dr had pulled.
I’m 42 and 6ft 2 and about 275. Like I said I’ve let me self go over the last few years. Lots of stress in my personal life and job and no time to myself.
Morning headache most days. Usually clears up after a hot shower or my drive to work. Maybe it’s @Nates voice that soothes it away from listening to the podcasts, who knows. I do snore as stated and my girlfriend says I do gasp for air quite frequently. She has actually videoed me to show me and it’s crazy.
Wow…you sound like me…I had epstein barr about 7 years ago…then went hypo thyroid. Really screwed up my racing and training…I take armour thyroid as synthroid gives me anxiety and sleep issues.
Sorry for the Swedish I didn’t have time to change language to suit everyone. But it’s been like this for quite some time. I do however see that the Garmin is counting my 2-3hrs at the computer before bed as sleep and if I see that I just change the whole sleep-period to suit when I went to bed.
I guess I can take solace in the fact that I’m fairly consistent about getting 8+ hours a night and going to bed at a reasonable time. Aside from that its not all that helpful.
Given its all wrist based HRM and that is inconsistent at best, i don’t know if you can truly trust the way they are break down the sleep cycles into REM, light and deep.
@CaelismadisonYou need to get a sleep study done, ASAP!!!
The app you are using is hiding the most important information you (your sleep doctor) needs to assess the quality of your sleep - how many apnea and hypopnea events you are having each hour. AHIs are essentially interruptions in breathing resulting in lack of oxygen delivery to your brain (snoring is a symptom). This is serious stuff! If you are getting 6+ hours per night and don’t wake up fresh, there is potentially something serious going on. I know. I have been there.
I’m 61 and about 20 years ago I had your situation, although I would get much less sleep than you seem to be getting. My doctor sent me to a sleep specialist who had me do a sleep study. Sure enough, I had a Rest Disturbance Index (RDI) of 29 (10 or below is generally considered good). [RDIs result from apneas and hypopneas]. Surgery brought my RDI to about 10.
Unfortunately, as we age our tissues get soft so my RDI went back up to 19. [Being overweight can contribute to a high RDI, but that isn’t/wasn’t my issue]. I elected not to have further surgery, but instead use a CPAP. I tried to include a screenshot from my CPAP that shows the # of my apnea & hypopnea event (AHI index), but it is too large for the Forum thread. I can monitor daily/weekly/monthly. I am averaging about 6.0 (that’s very good) and wake up rested every day I use the CPAP (about 98% of the time).
I don’t want to scare you, but lack of oxygen to the brain is very serious! Do yourself a favor and discuss with your doctor why he/she is not recommending a sleep doctor to you or find yourself another doctor that will do so. PM me if you want to talk privately.
My dr has ordered a sleep study for me. An in home one but it’s not working out for me so far. It’s done over 3 nights and there’s a finger sensor for pulse ox, a chest sensor and a breath sensor. If one malfunctions it makes all kinds of noise. Well so far the first night the breath sensor kept going off as not operating. So I called a few times and did the troubleshooting with them and they said I must have a bad breath sensor. They sent a new one. So after 3 days I get the new one, nope same thing as before and I keep getting alarms. They say now that since it’s the same thing may I have a bed machine. So I sent the machine back to them and in the next couple of days I should have another machine to try. The last few night pulse ox, according to my Garmin Fenix gets to about 83. Last night was another I’m just going to sleep as long as I can night.
So I got my sleep study done and it came back showing I have what the dr called extreme obstructive sleep apnea. In the next week I hope to have some help to improve my sleep.
But it’s been like this for quite some time. I do however see that the Garmin is counting my 2-3hrs at the computer before bed as sleep and if I see that I just change the whole sleep-period to suit when I went to bed.
