Sleep

"Somnum puer, somnus et non evigilabit donec dicitur."

In the early or mid 1990's, I sold and installed our medical practice management software in the first Sleep Disorder Clinic I had ever heard of. I quizzed the staff what their practice, and what a sleep center was all about. I remember thinking that this was silly, and a total insurance scam.

I thought that trouble sleeping would be a result of some other problem. Find the real problem and fix it, then the patient will sleep better. Be it digestive, stress related, sinus issues or any number of other problems, it just seemed to make more sense to find and fix the underlying cause of poor sleep, not work on the sleep.

Now, of course, there are sleep centers all over the place.

About 7 years ago, my brother had a sleep study, and got a CPAP machine. He said it made a world of difference. I was skeptical. So a couple of months ago in San Francisco, the guy who let me camp out in his hotel room mentioned that I stopped breathing a lot at night, then gasped for air. He suggested I get a CPAP too, and has bugged me constantly about it since.

I found a practice that does the sleep studies at home without all of the fuss of a night at the hospital. We're doing my sleep study this week, but the Dr. already told me to get ready for one of those machines. I've been asking around, and found 10 people within my circle who have such a device. Exactly five of them say it is the greatest thing ever. They talk about their sleep mask the way I talk about vaping. Their enthusiasm and testimony about how much good these devices really do is encouraging.

The other five went through the study, got a machine but don't use it. They're uncomfortable, too much trouble, don't work, blah, blah.

The ones who use them say that they get a full night's sleep in about five hours, wake up energized and rested and ready for the day. I don't think I have ever - ever felt that way in the morning. I need a pot of coffee and half a pack of smokes (before I started vaping, anyway) before I can even focus on waking up. Hmmm.

I have never felt that sleeping is on the list of things I'm no good at. I sleep a lot. I have always considered it fortuitous that I have the luxury of sleeping 7+ hours at night. I always thought this is something I did pretty well.

Maybe it's time I considered a different perspective. Is there a possibility that my sleeping IS the underlying problem? Or is it all hocus-pocus?