After 5 years of CPAP treatment, 5 sleep studies culminating in a CPAP titration study followed by MSLT (multiple sleep latency test) I am more confused now than I was 5 yrs ago.
This last test's results showed that I need to increase my pressure (from 7 to 9). I had a sleep efficiency of 94% (cool!) with 4% stage I, 72% stage II, 7% stage III and 17% REM wave sleep. Ok. I can deal with that.
However the MSLT was a tad more significant...it showed my sleep latency at a mere 4 minutes. This is significant. It was explained to me that an average person would fall asleep 2-3 times out of 5, while someone with "excessive daytime sleepiness" would fall asleep each time, with an average sleep latency of 10 minutes. And someone significant would have sleep latency or 5 minutes (again, mine was 4 minutes).
My pulmonologist prescribed provigil. This was developed for narcolepsy, however since I didn't reach REM stages during the MSLT (only during my CPAP titration study did I reach REM), I am not trully narcoleptic. But I do suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness, even though my CPAP treatment for OSA seems to be effective.
I don't really know how to form this into a question, other than asking for any guidance, advice, empathy, simular situations, etc that might be out there! I feel very much alone on this, as I am sure you all feel much of the time. I know we all feel daytime sleepiness, but should I be more concerned? I don't feel that is right. I do hope Provigil will help, but since it is simply a stimulant, and coffee has never seemed to do much more than keep my simptoms at bay, I'm not overly optomistic.
Ok, I think I'm done now. I know I'm whining a bit
Thanks for listening.
