What can help my sleep.

68 male.  Bypass surgery in 1998.  No problems from that.  Recent stress test (ran treadmill to 142) and ultrasound
back with good results.  Have Brady cardia (usually around 56-58)  I have sleep apena, tried the cpap unit but could not use it.  Recently having a lot of PVC's from 32-48 at rest or sleep.  I sleep ok from 9 pm until 1 or 2 am.  after that I cannot sleep because of breathing problems. My heart Dr said he would put in a pace maker IF I wanted to, but he thought it was a little premature.  I am attempting to cut out my caffine and cola's and will try to lose a little weight (5'7", 195).   Any suggestions?

[Jerry_NJ]

I have completely moved to decaf coffee and cola. That's not to say either is good for you, but at least I don't get any caffeine form it.  Avoid chocolate and after dinner snacks, my suggestions, I still have trouble avoiding these last two temptations.

[itdood]

56-58 is really borderline on the brady...

Life style changes is all you might need.  I'm 5'7" too, and used to weigh 195.  I'm down to 160 and feel so much better.

This might help with your apnea too.

If it were me I'd go after all the lifestle changes first.  Take care of the apnea too.  The apnea can have a profound impact on your heart and brain.

[chicky2001]

Xanax.  Mild 0.5 mgs taken when needed.  Works wonders.  At my age I'm not worried about getting addicted.  I only take it once in a while anyway and only one pill at bedtime..  Talk to your doctor.  Doctors never suggest drugs.  You have to ask.

[CFS56]

Wondering if you are waking yourself up because of not breathing and the sleep apnea.  I do that sometimes.  Have you tried one of those dental appliances that pull your jaw forward?  I can't tolerate cpap either and have had decent results with the dental appliance.
I doubt with your apnea they will give you xanax.  It relaxes your muscles, slows down breathing and can make apneas worse.

[BobRBob]

I'd pass on the Xanax. Very addictive and it will make your sleep apnea worse. Oxygen desaturation is the problem with sleep apnea increasing the risk of heart failure, stroke, cardiac arrest etc. This may not be what you want to hear but I think the best thing for you is to persevere with the CPAP therapy. Find a mask that works without leaking and learn to sleep with it. With your sleep disordered breathing under control, you will return to a normal sleep pattern without drugs. I have sleep apnea as well and I will not even take a nap without my CPAP.

As for doctors not suggesting drugs, that hasn't been my experience. Quite the opposite. Write a script and on to the next  patient.

[Kedeck]

hi I have a suggestion for you even though its 2011 and you probally not read this but you should probally cut out all pop it really helps you lose weight. I lost 30 pounds from doing this but i understand it's hard to do though.

[yarrow]

Losing extra pounds is critical for the effective treatment of sleep apnea, as you can read in the results of this da*n serious study:

http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/02/090206081319.htm

It's important to reduce not only sweet drinks and so on, but to really reduce the portion size of everything on your plate (except vegetables).  And exercise, even only walking a half hour a day (1 hr is better) will make the weight drop off faster--especially for men.  It's not fair to women, but men, with their greater proportion of muscle, lose weight much more easily than do the ladies.  Speaking as a woman, I say, "Rats!" but what are you gonna do?

I have known several people who simply had to use CPAP.  Every one of them hated it with a passion at the beginning, but came to find that their lives were much better being able to breathe at night, so they finally made a mental adjustment to it.

I'd suggest that you give the machine another full-on trial, with a determined effort to succeed, because sleep apnea really is dangerous.