In the last few months, I’ve become one of the statistics: I have been diagnosed with sleep apnea. For those who haven’t heard, “sleep apnea” is the fancy term for “stop breathing at night,” and it seems these days more and more people are being diagnosed with it (some stats say 1 in 4 people suffer from it).

While the increasing trend has been tied to the rising BMI levels in the population (and I’m one of them too, for now), my understanding is that doctors just know more about the problems these days, especially in the last ten years, which has lead to a rapid increase of diagnosis and treatment.

If you think you have sleep apnea, tell your doctor, and you’ll be sent to a sleep clinic. Here’s a warning though; depending on what type of clinic you are sent to will influence your wait period. Here in Toronto, when I was referred to East General’s sleep clinic, I was given an appointment over six months in the future. But when I went back to my doctor’s office, they were able to get me in a different sleep clinic in Scarborough with only a couple weeks wait (Sleep clinic tip: take your own pillow, and make sure you have enough time to shower afterward: you are going to have some crazy gunk end up in  your hair).

Here’s a little more about my experience so far:

After the sleep clinic, another few weeks passed, and I got my results: I stopped breathing approximately 240 times over the course of the night, sometimes up to a minute! With that diagnosis, I was given a prescription for a CPAP machine, and I was sent off to SMG (Sleep Managment Group, which has a number of offices all over the city) to get fitted with a mask and given a loaner machine. Fortunately, OHIP covers around the cost of half the machine, and my insurance covers the other half.

The loaner model I’ve been given is the ResMed S8, which comes with a built in humidifier, heater, “ramping” feature that slowly increases the pressure (So far, I’m a “12″), and an auto-on / auto-off feature that means I don’t have to worry about fooling with the machine. I’ve also been testing out both the “full face” and nasal masks, trying to find that optimal fit. I’m also more or less settled on the full-face “Mirage Quattro” mask, which is pretty swanky in terms of CPAP masks, and surprisingly comfortable. The only thing I found with the nasal mask was that when you would open your mouth to talk or something, air would be forced out — a pretty weird feeling.

After several weeks of using it, I still don’t like the feeling of wearing the mask: I usually take it off in the middle of the night, and rely on my sleeping buddy to nag me to put it back on again (so far, I’m at about 6 hours a night!). But with that said, I do feel the difference in the morning if I’ve used the machine or not.

For some people, they experience “relief” right away… for others, it takes several months of CPAP usage. For myself, I’m somewhere in the middle… I have felt much more fresher and rested in the morning, but I still feel like it could be better. I’m attending another sleep study later this week, called a “Titration study,” which more-or-less helps you fine-tune your settings for optimal sleeping.

Just to clear up one other misconception about the CPAP: It doesn’t actually “breathe” for you, like some machines you may have seen in the hospital, it merely creates “pressure” in your airway, so that when you breathe, it keeps your airway forced open, so that you never completely stop breathing…. which is why I think it takes so long to adjust to; you really have to almost learn how to breathe differently.

Other thoughts about using a CPAP:

• I have a pretty massive fear of hospitals, and even just looking at one can send me into a spiral of anxiety and panic attacks. When I spot myself wearing the mask at night, it kind of spikes that fear in me a little.
• I also wonder about the plastic casing of the humidifier chamber and mask, and the recent fears over Bisphenol A. ResMed is apparently aware of the concern, but stands by it’s plastic as being totally safe.
• There’s lots of weird myths out there about some aspects of the treatment: I’ve heard from someone about a guy who didn’t use distilled water, and years later found crystals in his breathing airways.
• I’ve always been a really, really intense snorer, but the sleep apnea itself only really began a year ago: It will be interesting to see how much of the snoring will go away over time.
• The burping!
• I still haven’t given up on the idea that I might be able to stop using it someday (without having surgery).
• Way more people I know use this than I previously realized. And we sound like geeks talking about our cars when we swap stories.
• I put up a really random picture on this one, because for some reason, when you go looking for CC sleep apnea photos, its mostly of people looking really gross in sleep studies or otherwise, so I’ll spare you.

If you want to learn more, take a look at Joey Devilla’s blog, where he chronicles his own experiences in getting diagnosed and treated.