Yes, Good Night

So I do not have sleep apnea.  The results of my sleep study came back and showed that I’m not waking from snoring, low O2 or body movement – but I am coming out of deep sleep a lot.  According to the charts, I should be spending about 20% of my night in deep, stage 4, slow wave sleep (SWS).

This is the recuperative sleep the body needs to feel restored and refreshed.

The study showed that I only spent 10% of the night in SWS; that’s half of what I should get.  To complicate matters, I had over 70 ‘waking events’ during non-REM sleep which kept me from remaining in SWS for extended periods.  Although I was technically asleep for most of the night, the lack of SWS accounts for the exhausted feeling I have upon waking.

Check out the Wikipedia links - I've learned more about sleep in the last two days that I ever thought I'd need.

So, anyway, my doc gave me some samples of AmbienCR and I can’t believe the difference.  The past two mornings my eyes have snapped open at ~0600 and I’ve been able to get up and go without the usual sluggishness.  The “CR” is for “continuous release” – half the tablet is an immediate dose to help you get to sleep (it’s quite effective) while the other half is buffered to give an additional dose later in the night to help you stay asleep.  Even though I’m recovering from a cold, I’ve been awake and alert all day – most notably in the late afternoon.

Problem solved?  I’ll keep you posted.