One step closer to Darth Vader

It's official... I have severe obstructive sleep apnea. I saw the sleep study results and I was waking myself up MORE THAN 80 TIMES an hour... holy crap. Anything over 30 times an hour is considered severe, so I'm WAY over that. It makes me wonder how I've been operating at all with that kind of severe sleep deprivation for years.

The good news is that last night was my first night sleeping with the CPAP machine. It's basically a machine that blows air up my nose all night. It sounds like a horror movie but it's not as bad as you'd think. The mask is ungainly and certainly not pretty, but it's comfortable. It took some effort to breath only through my nose, but I think I did pretty well. I remember waking up several times in the night, typically when the hose or face mask was twisted or pinching me. But overall I slept through the night and I feel much more rested today than I normally do. I'm a little sleepy but not so much that I could put my head down and start snoring. I have a little zip in my step and I feel a little more optimistic about... well, about everything. I'm just in a better mood.

The worst part is that the setup is not exactly comfortable nor sexy. I look like a patient in a burn ward or something. Luckily Colleen has seen her Grandpa's mask and machine so she didn't freak out. I even had her try on my mask and we played with it a little. I didn't want her to have a bad dream and come into my room and have a heart attack.

The machine also makes me sound like Darth Vader, which is sorta cool except he's a bad guy and, well... a burn victim. Hey, if it helps me get good sleep and feel better... I'm up for it.