Sleep

[gonetomorrow]

A full eight hours.

I haven't had that for about twenty years.

 

[Sadken]

I started sleeping better when I changed to de caff tea bags.

 

[verreauxi]

I have to go to bed early as a few years ago, out of nowhere, my right branch of the phrenic nerve (the nerve that powers your diaphragm so you can breathe automatically) just stopped working, as in was paralyzed. No one knows why, but long-covid is suspected. So I only have part of my diaphragm (from the left branch of the nerve) to help me breathe. There are a lot of knock-on effects from this that I never knew: 1) if you lie on your back, your diphragm is the muscle that keeps your stomach and liver from pushing up against your lungs (on the right side) and since my diaphragm on my right side doesn't really work, when I lie on my back I feel as if I'm suffocating because my right lung is being squeezed/deflated by the liver/stomach pushing up on it. 2) I can breathe, but its called paradoxical breathing. If you have a normal working diaphragm and take in a deep breath, your stomach pushes outward because your lungs are filling with air (air is being pulled into them by the diaphragm flexing downward toward your pelvis) and this pushes the stomach/liver outward. In my case, when I take in a deep breath, the opposite happens, as I need to expand my rib cage to draw air in, and this causes my stomach to sink inward. 3) Sleep-wise, I can only sleep on my right or left side as this is the only position that relieves the pressure of my stomach/liver not pushing on my lower right lung (which is now partially collapsed), and even more fascinating is that if I roll over on my back in my sleep, then, as decribed above, my stomach/liver push into my right lung and I feel as if I'm suffocating--but I'm asleep, so what happens is the suffocation enters my dream. So almost every night, I'm prone to unknowingly roll on my back in my sleep and this entails a new way for my brain to write in the "suffocation" to the script of my dream until I wake up (i.e., I will be having a "normal" dream until I roll onto my back in my sleep, and then my brain writes the suffocation feeling into the dream). I have had more permutations of "suffocation dreams" than I ever thought: I have woken up due to suffocation, as I dream, by being chased to exhaustion by a murderer, being caught in a smokey fire, trying to outrun a bear/wolf/tiger, being underground in a dusty mineshaft, opening a cellar door full of dust, being caught underwater in a sinking ship, etc., etc., It's like every night I wonder what new way will my brain write in the "suffocation" due to my rolling onto my back when I'm sleeping.

Anyways, this means I really don't get a good sleep so for about the 10-11 hours I spend in bed, I only get about 5-6 due to discomfort from only being able to sleep on my side (shoulder issues), as well as the suffocation-dreams which are generally not pleasant.

 

[Pootsy]

I'm a night owl. When I get to bed the wifes been asleep 2-3 hours already on some nights. Apparently after 4 hours of sleep I start to snore for half an hour, much to the better halfs annoyance. I've explained that this is involuntary and that she snores also but that doth butter no parsnips for her.