This is day one.
Yesterday, a person in scrubs came to give me my CPAP machine (Constant Positive Airway Pressure) which is a device to combat sleep apnea, which I have been informed I have rather badly.
This is, in short, a condition where one stops breathing in one’s sleep long enough to interrupt the sleep cycle, which essentially negates that sleep. These episodes happen many times in a night, and a whole bunch, like I have, wrecks the night. So I sleep and sleep and sleep to no positive end. Two hours, four, eight, twelve, doesn’t matter the amount of time, I wake up feeling like I haven’t slept at all to speak of.
So now there’s the machine.
It’s a bit of a nuisance. I have to sleep with a face mask on which is connected to a tube which is connected to a humidifier device which is part of an air pump (but it’s actually rather neat and compact). And, true to its name, there is constant air pressure on my nose and mouth – an amount I’ve been told is the equivalent to being thirteen centimeters under water. I’m not certain of that though.
So. It took me a while to get to sleep. I’d estimate somewhere around thirty or forty minutes. I hope it gets easier. I wasn’t incredibly tired at that point so that probably had something to do with it as well. The cats were also crawling around, fascinated by this new development. That time must have been around one, so when I naturally woke up later, it had only been about five or so hours. However, as a result of that five hours I felt at least as refreshed as I do on any given night, likely more so.
Indeed, as I got up, fed the cats, did my daily push ups with appreciable ease, made pancakes because I’d had a hankering last night, and ate them. Then I did the dishes and cleaned the kitty litter. I’ve already bested my typical daily productivity and it’s not even eight in the morning.
However! There are things to consider. First of all it wasn’t the immediate cure I’d promised myself despite the obvious counter indications that it could be. (Physically impossible). However, the sleep related results are, mostly, immediate, which does match what I’d been promised by people who know what they’re talking about.
Also consider: pancakes don’t help anyone. It’s raining, which can dampen things literally and metaphorically. And, crucially, I’m not confident in my wakefulness – that is to say I’m not necessarily feeling 100%. I’m awake and alert but I do feel it could potentially slip.
So. We shall see.
Update: around 11:15 am. Was in the office for a while. Not sure if it’s boredom or actually not enough sleep but now even with an early lunch, I’m dragging a bit. I wish I was better able to isolate the reason. It IS raining. I AM bored. But I also didn’t sleep a full average 8 hours last night.
Update 2: Yes, I am unhappy. No, I don’t know why I slept the whole day.