sleepingmikeawake :- Sleep Disorders Community -: Support Group

Very true in discribing the HH's at onset of sleep and on awakening. It should be...

Very true in discribing the HH's at onset of sleep and on awakening. It should be noted that this can happen to a person that doesn't have an actual disorder. HH's are useually very vivid and there occurrence is more often in the number of times they appear in those with a chronic sleep disorder. I am also Narcoleptic with Cataplexy. I have REM intrusions throughout the day, they usually co-inside with a sleep attack but they have been known to happen without the symptoms of a sleep attack. It has taken me a long time to learn to cope with the distractions of my brain going off to netherworld, I thought I had it under control but it seems the older I get the worse I suffer from it and it seems to me that it is now almost impossible to be able to cope with it any more. I have spent the last 4 years trying all the different treatments (chemically) and I am at a point where the meds just don't work very good or they cause bad side effects. I started my treatment back in 1986, and gradually through the years made adjustments to my life style and career so as to be as safe to myself and the general public. It is still a huge concern of mine for public safety but it seems that the Govt. still doesn't seem to think that driving while you are at an attack risk, is a problem. There still needs to be more awareness of the dangers that we can impose on the public due to the seriousness of Narcolepsy. That being said, there needs to be a better understanding of the various levels of severity in symptoms that are displayed by individuals with sleep disorders. I have experienced many of these levels through out my life dealing with Narcolepsy. They range from mild to medium (meaning, managable without to much risk) and to a level of being disabled. As we get older, it's hard enough to compete for employment without having any health issue to deal with but when you add the health issue in there you suddenly become unuseable to this world and it's work force. So like a broken part you are discarded never to be of use anymore. That is when you make the attemp to recieve what you have been paying in for for so many years, only to add to the struggle for the existence of being awake occaisionally.
This bit of discouragement has been brought on by my circumstances that I have experienced this past few months and by no means do I wish any ill regard to any person. This is just another slice of the struggles that we face. Struggles that I am sure will continue as time passes by. May you all become more informed and stay educated on our struggles.
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Reply: Still sleepy using cpap

I agree with Snoopyrocks. You should get the day time nap study done to see if it...

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Reply: Waking up 20-30 times per night!!!

There is such a thing as a sleep study but the one you want should include the...

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Reply: ACTIVE DREAMING

Howdy Caprice and all! It has been awhile since I have had the chance to talk....

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The Lurker

Recently in the Narcolepsy support group I am in, I commented on "the Lurker."...

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Reply: Stress and Sleep - How About You?

Wow, 6 days ? Stress is a joy killer in all facets of life. Emotional, Mental,...

Posted by sleepingmikeawake

Wow, 6 days ?
Stress is a joy killer in all facets of life. Emotional, Mental, Physical, and Spiritual.
We all try to avoid it. Yet there are those that give the outward appearence that they thrive on it. We know differently, don't we.
Stress causes all sorts of trouble, even if you think you have solved the situation that caused the stress in the first place. Some time in the night whilest sleeping most will subconciously review and sort and store all of the days activities and if strong emotion is connected with the information it may just either work its way out in a passive dream or scare the bejeevers out of ya. Or if you're fortunate as alot are you wont even remember the silly ways the brain handles it.
The bigest scource of stress is alomst gone as my job as an Analysis and Repair Technition is heading to Mexico. 2010 was so much mandintory overtime that it put me in the hospital.
After three more E-R visits and two more hospital stays the following year, along with so many tests I have stableized. When you over work and inturn over stress, it wears the immune system down. In turn you could end up like me and get a virus of some sort and getting the autonomic nervous system messed up. I am sure the spinal stenosis has a part in there as well but I was required to keep a thurough journal on my diet, sleep, pain, BM's, and general all around feeling. For 5 months I did this.
It was a daily routine and almost became an obsession. I did get the information that the Dr. needed to diagnose me with IBS. I could have pushed further into what other things were wrong. but I realised that there has to be a balance of how I think on things. They say you can think yourself right into the grave. It is certianly true that your thought processes on at least some things can have a negative or a positive effect on your well being. So I stopped journaling my every day stuff and now I only write in my personal journal my lifes big events or when I start to get depressed. (Journaling my thoughts has helped me out of the darkness of depression many of times in the past especially before I found a support group for my Narcolepsy.) I certianly hope this helps in your discussion about stress. Having a sleep attack in the middle of driving to wo or from work has to be right up there with the most stressful situations that I have. You see, you can't always time the medicines to co-inside with the digestive absortion timing and the time to be at work. So that's why I work hours that when I am driving, there is little traffic and I have changed my career to have less distance to drive. (I went from a 2 to 3 hour commute to 20 minutes.) I have found that on average if I am by myself, I can go about 15 minutes before a struggle with something Narcolepsy related. Believe me it will be a big relief to be out of work. But then there you have it...how to survive on little or no income. Large stress when given the chance to think about it long enough. It seems to have no end. Still, I have hope that soon all things will be mended.
I hope this helps.View Thread

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Reply: Unsuccessful CPAP use

Hi! I went through 3 masks in 5 months. They tend to break when nthey are ripped...

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Reply: R.E.M / nightmares and violent dreams acted out

There is a name for what you are describing and in another group Ithat I belong...

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Reply: I wake up in the middle of the night (sometimes) a...

Hi Fallen T. If you research the phases of sleep that most go through normally...

Posted by sleepingmikeawake

Hi Fallen T.
If you research the phases of sleep that most go through normally you come across the study of how close your brain reads to an awake state during REM or Dream stage. the fact that you are waking in this stage is common. Dreams are so vivid and powerful, they span all of our experiences and go way beyond. Our Brain constructs millions of bits of information and processes it in the dream realm. Emotions that are generated through out our consious life is reconstructed in our dreams though the situation and interpitation of these things may be as simple as remembering the emotion of a taste of a certian food but in the dream construction it plays out as an epic story of adventure and comes so close to matching or excedeing the waking state that you actually phase to an imediate waking state feeling all the intense feeling of the construction that your brain was playing out.
Have you experienced an inability to move when this happens?
This is called Sleep paralysis. evreyone is suppose to have this happen when they enter the dream stage of sleep. some times we experience this on the onset of going to sleep and are awake when it happens. and when we wake up. It is normal to experience this on occasion but if it is happening frequently and even through the time of the day when you are awake; you may have a serious problem, Myself, I have a sleep disorder that has all the REM problems along with Cataplexy and EDS and HHalucinations (dream intrusions while being awake), Sleep paralysis, all of the markers for Narcolepsy. I have dealt with this diagnosis for more than 25 years now and have recently (2009) had the Diagnosis re evaluated and have confirmed it with modern sleep study and multisleep latency tests I also have both kinds of sleep apnea (obstructive and Central)
I find the subject of sleep and how it affects our lives to be very interesting and extensive topic to research. I hope this little tid bit into the realm that I spend most , has helped. Oh, one more thing, recently it has been discovered that REM isn't the only phase inwhich people dream,,,there are deeper phases of sleep that we dream in but the brain wave patterns seem to imply that these dreams are very much different that what we experience during REM. New discoveries are being found every day. thanks for letting me share.View Thread

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Reply: Always tired

Hi! What you are describing is EDS which can be caused by many things. If this...

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