Thursday, May 3, 2012

Sawing Logs

Snoring is one thing that is best done in the privacy of your own home. It’s really nothing to be embarrassed about, yet people deny ever having done it. 

“Wake up! You were snoring.” 

“I was not.” 

“Yes you were.  I heard you.” 

“I do not snore, you must have been dreaming.” 

“Dreaming? In order to dream I first have to sleep and how could I possibly sleep with all that noise?”

I’m Jerry Kucera, and I snore. Sometimes I snore so loud I wake myself up. I first started snoring back in …”

Last fall I was talking with a friend of mine named Kim who was participating in a sleep apnea study.  With several sleep disorders to keep me up at night (insomnia, narcolepsy, restless leg syndrome, and delayed sleep phase disorder) I can’t keep them all straight.  

But with a little help from those folks at www.helpguide.org it began to make sense.

“Symptoms of sleep apnea include:

·                     Loud, chronic snoring

·                     Frequent pauses in breathing during sleep

·                     Gasping, snorting, or choking during sleep

·                     Feeling unrefreshed after waking and sleepy during the day, no matter how much time you spent in bed

·                     Waking up with shortness of breath, chest pains, headaches, nasal congestion, or a dry throat.

“Sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder in which your breathing temporarily stops during sleep due to blockage of the upper airways. These pauses in breathing interrupt your sleep, leading to many awakenings each hour. While most people with sleep apnea don’t remember these awakenings, they feel the effects in other ways, such as exhaustion during the day, irritability and depression, and decreased productivity.”

It was also stated that sleep apnea is “potentially life-threatening.” Apparently, it’s possible to fall asleep, stop breathing and not wake up. So Kim wanted to see what she could do to improve her chances of sleeping and waking by participating in a clinical study.

During her visit Kim was outfitted with electrodes that monitored her brain waves while she slept. In addition to the uncomfortable electronic night-cap that she had to wear, a nurse kept interrupting her sleep when she came in to check on her.

It didn’t sound like it was a very successful session. It almost seemed as if Kim had walked into the wrong room and had unwittingly participated in a sleep depravation study instead.

Or maybe it was just one of those things that seem instinctively contradictory, like cutting down trees so new ones can be planted. That’s what I did last weekend.

My family and I planted 50 trees, an even number of spruce and fir. We picked these particular trees for two reasons: One was to supply Christmas trees for the entire family in the not-too-distant future. Nothing against the Boy Scouts, we just like cutting our own tree without leaving the farm. But unless you live on a tree farm you have to replenish your inventory or one December you’ll be standing in a tree lot trying to decide which tree really needs you.

The second reason was for a wind break.  During a normal Minnesota winter it actually snows and blows. When that happens our driveway can get drifted over in a few hours, and this can happen several times a season.

So this last weekend I cut down some dead trees, and one or two live ones to give the new evergreens we planted a fighting chance. After a day of cutting and planting I fell into bed dead tired. I was even too tired to hear myself snore, although I haven’t spoke to the neighbors.




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