Structural Problems of Head/Neck/Mouth and Sleep

I got up today after having enjoyed a particularly good sleep -- probably because I had a GI 'bug' yesterday and was really wiped out. I took the day off yesterday and watched movies and ended the night with Saturday Night Live.  I woke up today feeling like it was going to take a while to shake off the dreaming and delicious sleep, but within a half an hour I was up and around, feeling rested and restored and grateful for sleeping much better and without medications now. 

I don't remember when my sleep problems started, I just know they were there as far back as pre-school age.  In elementary I would lie in bed and watch the second hand go round and round on my little electric alarm clock with an orange backlit face.  That was the mid 1960s and before the day of our modern electronics, so nothing was 'gentle' when it came to alarms.  I sometimes thought it was the fear of the startle response I had from the darned alarm that kept me from sleeping!

I would buy some really neat devices for waking me up over the years, most notably a lamp that would come on low and increase to bright and then go to sounds you could program, also starting out low and progressing louder. I still have that lamp by my bedside, though I don't use it for alarm due to a lot of travel in recent years and relying on something portable. Part of sleep hygiene is consistency.

Today, after making some green tea, I hopped onto Facebook, and one of the first things I saw was a post from one of the fibromyalgia activists using Facebook saying "if I could get this sleep thing figured out, I think that would really take care of a lot of my health problems".   I really sympathize with sleep disorder, and feel so grateful to have been getting my health back the past handful of years.

So, I thought I'd spend a little time today and look into finding more info about a "lightbulb" that went off for me at a recent training/seminar given by a dentist who treats the cranial vault and any irregularities through a variety of techniques and devices to re-align the mouth/jaw. It was a seminar specifically about pediatrics and I've covered it at the following topic on Lumigrate  www.lumigrate.com/forum/structural-problems-headneckmouth-and-sleep.  You'll see I've also posted the following as a follow-up there as well. 

Today in my reSearch, I came up with something about women with fibromyalgia and inspiratory airflow limitations. I'm posting the link and the page for you to look at.  Naturally,  please follow the link and explore this very established, mainstay website related to sleep, and consider purchasing articles you find helpful! 

I'd suggest you follow the above link and take a look at the websites that go with that initial piece I wrote about the facial/cranial abnormalities which can cause difficulty with inhilation, and consider going about finding a solution and provider along those lines if you're finding it to match with your situation/ symptoms.  Several people I know of had used the 'finder' on 'the cranial academy' website on a piece I wrote about Dr Ilene Spector (D.O.) and linked to The Cranial Academy's website, and found providers in their area that helped them get closer to well-being. She's helped me a great deal, and was the president of the organization when the website was created so that is her 'creation' of information.  I thought that was worth an honorable mention here.

From my perspective, in retrospect, it's unbelievable how close I kept coming to getting the proper diagnostic tests that might have avoided years of expense on my quality of life, and indirectly on my income and overall life as a result.  In those years, I was involved with someone who had already had palate surgery for apnea and it turned out he had focal apnea, so it did not solve his sleep disturbance AND messed up his harmonica playing for nothing!  

He went on to become a wonderful percussionist and has a lot of fun touring around the US banging on his congas. I hear he's in Vegas now and looking to move south from the US (via Facebook). I've seen the bills for sleep studies, I've seen that CPAP and similar DME offered (because they're expensive and make a lot of money for the companies. I'm told there's not a lot of money in the devices so much unless they have oxygen too, they make money off of the oxygen and not the delivery system). I've lived through the reality of trying to live a life with a partner with a VA service connection to Agent Orange and combat situations which gave service connection for their health care needs, who slipped through their cracks about apnea testing and treatment, and therefore he and everyone and everything around him was affected if he did not sleep well.  Here's a photo of us, 2002ish.   

His dog became my 'radar' first thing in the morning how she reacted to him I could tell if it was a day to proceed with him or go to my home and our separate ways and reduce the things which could trigger an episode.  I saw how the CPAP machine changed that for the better.  But only 50% of people take to their CPAPs, so other solutions are out there.  I suggest people consider trying things that the system doesn't pay for if they can afford it and decide where to start based on what YOU think is right in your case (or the one you're helping with medical things).  Here's a photo of her from that era of her life, she was about 14.

He'd follow me when I felt I was to move to Grand Junction in 2004, and move on within the year going his separate way and later thanking me for showing him how I worked diligently and continually on my self in body, mind and spirit growth and problem-solving.  I'm happy to see him finding a healthier, happier path.  His dog lived to 19, I trust that's when he was not needing her to help him with the difficulties in which she provided distraction and alerting about episodes. 

Again, he was helped and loved his, but that's about 1 in 2 people that take to them. A LOT of people who they are recommended to and provided by the system of medicine "refuse them" from the start, or get the device but are non compliant with their use because .... well, they're not that easy to deal with on a number of facets.  Yes, they are necessary for many I believe, and clearly reduce the symptoms and medical conditions occurring from breathing problems with sleep. 

But if there's a way to 'fry that fish' in a smaller way (like an oral appliance), that costs less, wouldn't that be a good starting point?  I think so. The Internet and increasing availability of "off the shelf" devices and tools provide many options today. 

About 10 years ago I had a run with lapses of consciousness in the evenings, and my doctor had me do a study to see if I was having seizures when I slept, and so I went to a sleep lab but all they did was watch what happened when I fell asleep and cleared me of whatever was suspected.  So close and yet so far to having my apnea problem caught then -- all that preparation (staying up 24 hours, go to the facility, get all wired up and where they can see you with the camera, then back home and to get some real sleep and back to your normal life) and they only had me fall asleep and sent me home. SO frustrating.

That's why I found this latest information about structure of the head and breathing in children an AHA!

Here's the link for this article at the website, which I encourage going to, but I've also placed the body of the abstract below, so you can see how GOOD this article is.  I hope you'll follow the link and learn more, and be on your way to learning further on your own and figuring out solutions for sleep issues.

Live and learn.  Learn and Live Better!  ~~ Mardy

www.journalsleep.org/ViewAbstract.aspx