Sleep Disorders
Written by: Roy Muise
As a person living with depression and anxiety for most of my life, I have been aware for a long time how important a good night’s sleep is. I also know how difficult it can sometimes be to get a good night’s sleep as your mind is racing, you are worrying about so many things and you are reliving your day, dwelling on all of the negative things that occurred. Because of this and as a part of my recovery journey, I have always been interested in learning about what I could do to improve my sleep. As time went on, I became an expert at doing what I needed to do to ensure I got adequate sleep most every night. I was actually quite proud of the fact that this was a part of my illness I had managed to control based on positive things I was doing. Then, everything changed.
It began slowly. I would have nights where, at some point, I was in a state somewhere between being asleep and being awake. The best way I can describe it is dreaming and being aware that I was dreaming. I had never experienced this before. It was not the same as having racing thoughts or rehashing the previous day, the dreams were about many different things not related to my current situation. First I put it down to medication. I was on a couple of new meds that I had heard can sometimes cause vivid dreams and just figured that was what it was. But as these nights increased in frequency, until it happened every night, I began to wonder if it was something else.
The next thing that I noticed was that I would fall asleep while watching television in the evening. At first I thought that this was being caused either by my depression or would just put it down to having a stressful day at work. I did find it strange, though, that I would not feel tired or feel myself drifting off to sleep. Instead, one minute I would be watching television or reading and next I would be waking up two or three hours later. As with the dreaming, the frequency of falling asleep increased over time until it was happening almost all the time. It would also happen at other times as well. I would be in a car with a friend, carrying on a conversation and the next thing I would know was that 20-30 minutes had passed with me falling asleep and again no indication that it was going to happen. I was beginning to worry about what was happening. The last straw was when I feel asleep while using my computer at work. I knew then that I had to find out what was going on.
I made an appointment with my doctor and told her what was happening and she made a referral to the Sleep Clinic at the QE II Health Centre. The first thing that happened was receiving a rather lengthy questionnaire about my sleep habits, which I filled out and returned. I was then called in to pick up a device that would monitor my sleep for a night. Soon after this, the call came with an appointment to spend the night at the sleep lab. It was an interesting experience being hooked up to a machine and having a breathing mask on. I was a little worried about sleeping under these circumstances but managed quite well even with them changing masks at different times during the night. In the morning, I was told to get breakfast and come back in about an hour to meet with the doctor – a pleasant surprise as I had assumed that the results would go to my family doctor and I would hear from her in a few weeks. When I met with the doctor I was told that I had Sleep Apnea and severe sleep deprivation and would need to get a CPAP machine. Dr. Morrison was great, taking the time to explain exactly what was going on. I was shocked to learn that I wasn’t waking up three or four times a night as I thought, but was instead waking up, on average, twice a minute. I was fitted for a mask (actually, air pillows) that would fit in the nostrils and given my prescription for a CPAP machine. I was told that sleeping better at night would be almost immediate but that getting over the effects of sleep deprivation might take up to six months, both of which proved to be correct.
What I wasn’t expecting was the improvement in my mental health. The fall and winter are generally the hardest time of year for me. I generally start feeling depressed in late September and the feelings slowly get worse as the seasons unfold. I have been using the CPAP since February and, for the first time in many years, I had no depression in the fall! There has been some depression that developed in December, which I am still dealing with, but it is not nearly as severe as it has been in the past few years. I have always known that adequate rest is important in dealing with depression and now have concrete proof as to how important it is to me.
Sleep Disorders
Written by: Donna Marsh
I am a 56-year-old woman living with a sleep disorder. I also live with mental and physical health issues, which impact my life in other ways.
I grew up in New Waterford, a coal mining town, the eldest of four children. Most of my younger life and into my adult life, having a good night’s sleep was not an issue for me.
I consider myself fortunate to have been able to work at a job I loved, from 1975 to 1997, as a Child Life Specialist at the IWK Grace. Sadly, my health impacted my career and I took medical leave in 1997 and was not able to return to work.
Sleep issues began affecting me negatively before I was diagnosed with lupus in 1985 and then with bipolar disorder in 1987. I struggled with the effects of these issues while remaining employed but took medical leave in 1997 and have not returned to work since. At that time I was diagnosed, I began taking medications for both conditions, increasing my body weight from 130 to 170 pounds. I was told the extra weight began to affect my sleep and, after a further increase in weight of another 100 pounds due to medication side effects, I was eventually diagnosed with a sleep disorder four years ago.
My journey to diagnosis began when I started to believe that sleep apnea was an issue when I was in the short stay unit at the Abbie Lane with an episode of mental illness. Nothing was done about it at that time. Eventually, I was tested at the Sleep Disorders clinic and they confirmed the suspicions of my doctor. I tested the CPAP machine at that time.
Because of the discomfort that I experienced as a result of improper setup of the machine, symptoms of menopause and my intolerance to the heat generated by the machine, I discontinued its use after trying it for one of the most humid summers I had experienced in years. Also, I was hoping to marry, but couldn’t imagine finding a partner who might tolerate sleeping with a wife and have to live with the presence of the machine in the bedroom. Because of these barriers, I was never able to assess whether the machine would actually help the quality of my sleep. At the time I was sleeping between 17 and 20 hours a day.
I even collected information on this treatment from other individuals who had been helped by the CPAP and tried hard to motivate myself to give it a proper go but was not convinced it might help me.
My doctor forced me to revisit the use of the machine a year and a half ago when I entered the hospital and began again to use a CPAP machine. At home, however, I didn’t use the machine consistently until I realized that I truly did need to work hard at using the machine to improve my sleep and my health.
Things have certainly changed for me. Now I find that I am comforted by the sound of the machine, the increased level of oxygen my body receives and the relief I feel from the cool air the machine generates. The machine that was once “my enemy” is now a huge help to me because I can fall asleep within a matter of seconds.
Through the use of other coping strategies and having some positive life experiences, even when I am at my most stressed, I am confident that I will be able to fall asleep.
This past summer, I felt comatose. Now I have the energy to take better care of myself in other ways and am able to enjoy my life more completely. This has changed my life.
Topic: Sleep Disorders
