I cannot wake up - Serious help needed!!!

[Jax2]

Please read all of what I write!, I have been reading on this problem for some time now and I know the common answers, I am trying to find someone else who may have had my problem before and found a way to overcome it, so here goes!

I cannot wake up! I set a LOUD alarm clock for 2 different times, 3 minutes apart, just to make sure that if I don't wake up from the first or 2nd alarm, they will keep buzzing at alternative times. I Set my cell phones alarms (Yes, all 5 of them!) 2 minutes apart, so I have continuous ringing for 10+ minutes, for an entire hour before they stop going off, yet none of these help me wake up. I sleep right through all the noise as if nothing was going on.

Just so you have this information to consider, here are some facts:

1) I do have sleep apnea and I do not use a cpap. I have never been diagnosed, but a nurse who saw me sleeping in the hospital for a few nights in a row said it is probably the worst sleep apnea she has seen in a long time. I snore so loud that people around me cannot sleep. Literally.

2) My work is 15 hours a day as well as 1 1/2 hours of drive time. So, considering I have to get up an hour before I have to leave for work and that I do not go to bed the minute I get home, I am lucky if most nights I get 5 hours of sleep, maybe 5 1/2. There is NO way to change this. I have to keep these hours. I cannot work 15 hours, drive home 40 minutes and go directly to bed, I need to unwind at least an hour.

3) If I sleep during the day and work the night shift I can wake up almost without fail when I need to. It is like I cannot sleep at night, but sleep great in the day. -- this is not what I need though as I'm not on night shift.

So, here is what I have read up on so far.
* I am lacking the proper amount of sleep I should be getting. -  Got that, can't help it. Need my job.
* I can train myself to wake up at a specific time - No, I can't. I have tried this for months on end and it has never worked.
* My sleep apnea wakes me up over and over and so my body is used to going right back to sleep when it is woken up. - Ok, great, how do I fix that????

Please, someone who may have been in the same situation as me, tell me anything I can do. I cannot keep calling in late to work because I didn't wake up. I sometimes sleep 45 minutes past the alarm, sometimes HOURS. I am going to get fired sooner or later and I simply can't allow that to happen.

[Paderla Anitha, DNB]

Hello and hope you are doing well.

As you have summarized the problems are obvious. Chronic inadequate sleep could be causing the drowsiness and inability to wake up. In addition if there is obstructive sleep apnea, this can further compromise on the quality of sleep. Further a confirmatory diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea can be made after a sleep study. If you have to tackle your problems and keep your job try to get adequate sleep and get professional help for obstructive sleep apnea. As, prolonged sleep loss leads to episodes of ‘micro sleep’, where in the person has several seconds of actual sleep in between wakefulness, this leads to a decrease in performance and in turn behavior. The implications as such are many, micro sleep episodes are the commonest cause for accidents.

Hope this helped and do keep us posted.

[Caryopteris]

I empathize with your need for a job, but the reason they have rules about an APAP machine and sleep apnea diagnosis is obviously the huge danger of a truck driver falling asleep behind the wheel.  When your brain is robbed of oxygen, it is called hypoxia, and that causes brain damage.  If you are overweight, getting down to an optimal weight may cure your sleep apnea.  You would need to do a serious program like p90x to get the weight off quickly.  

[Jax2]

Oh, yes, and one more bit of info ... someone suggested I get a cpap machine before... I cannot do that. In order to, I would have to be fully diagnosed with sleep apnea. I am a truck driver. I can't have that and still drive, so I would be out of my living.