Sleeping Like a Baby

Cartoon of me, a chubby brunette,
clad in blue, asleep curled up
on a cloud, with a night sky
showing heart-shaped constellations

 Or... not, given that babies wake every couple of hours, crying, wet, and generally uncomfortable.

I'm not doing that, not anymore.

This is for several reasons. 

1. While things are Still Scary™ out there, the imminent danger of waking up dead because 45 has offended someone dangerous is considerably lessened.
2. We're all still basically healthy at Chez GamersBabes and Co, in spite of The Plague™.
3. Due to The Plague™, I am highly unlikely to have to go anywhere in the Potential Snopocalypse™ expected this week.
4. I am evidently breathing all night now. 

While the first three of these - and the lessened anxiety thereby - are factors, the biggest one is number four.

You see, I wasn't. Wasn't breathing all night, I mean. Or not well. The at-home sleep study I did was ah... not inconclusive; I definitely have sleep apnea (stopping breathing during sleep) and sleep hypopnea (breathing very shallowly during sleep). Not enough oxygen = all sorts of issues, from raising the blood pressure to making one excessively sleepy during the day to brain fog to... well, you get the idea. Right, Mr. Flibble? WOO.

So I got a CPAP machine - the Phillips Respironics DreamWear (thank you, Molina Healthcare). 

This is not your mother's CPAP. For one thing, the "mask" is more like a harness of silicon tubing that goes around your head, the hose comes out of the tube at the top of your head instead of looking like an elephant's trunk, and the part that goes over your mouth and nose... doesn't. It's just a little soft silicon shelf that your nose rests on. It's all connected to a humidifier and respirator doohickey.

The first night I struggled for a couple hours - too much sensory input! - and then put on my favorite Sleep Story from the Calm App and was out in minutes. I don't have the stats from that night's sleep (I hadn't set up the myAir app yet), but I felt decent in the morning, noticed that my nose wasn't as stuffy as usual, nor my lips as dry. 

That was five nights ago.

The stats on the app show that I've slept between eight and nine hours every night since. Now that I am sleeping with it on reliably, not waking myself up because of all the sensory stuff, I'm going to wear my Fitbit tonight and see if it agrees with how restful my sleep is now. Neither is super accurate on its own - the MyAir app just knows that I'm lying down and the mask is fitted well, and the Fitbit just knows I haven't moved a lot in the last hour - but it will be interesting to see how their numbers compare.