Ongoing Broken Sleep Patterns

[Oslog]

For several years now, I have had problems getting a good nights sleep. It has become so bad that recently I have been evicted from my marital bed and now have to make do with sleeping on the living room couch!

I awake on numerous occasions during the night. According to my wife I snore loudly and when I am not doing that I "flail and jitter" and have "spasms", much to my wifes annoyance.

Another aspect of my broken sleep is that I have sleep paralysis. At first this was frightening but now I am used to it. I am aware that I am awake but unable to move, open my eyes or speak. I just lie there now until it passes. This happens a several times a year, but I can have a couple of bouts a month if I am unlucky.

To cap it all, at least once a month, I suffer from a day or so of complete mental and physical exhaustion, where I feel incapable of doing anything. This is causing real problems with my young family and with my job. I have a tendency to make fundamental mistakes and am unable to concentrate or think clearly, seemingly having "mind fog" and find myself staring into the middle-distance a lot.

I have had my throat and tonsils checked by a specialist and they are normal. I have also worn an oxygen saturation monitor overnight with the results coming back from the doctor stating that my levels show no signs of Obstructive Sleep Apnoea. Yet the problem still continues.

I don't know if these things are connected, but I have noticeable muscle spasms in my leg and less so in my arms and occasional desensitisation in my fingers and toes. My lips become numb, I have headaches and my whole body aches!

Please would it be possible to provide my with a possible solution to my problem?

[Sam888]

I agree with your scarlet, except physicians are now telling us that we don't need much Delta (stages 3/4) sleep.  In fact, the impression they give is that it's ok not to have much delta sleep since as we get older we require less and less.  This of course, contributes to more illnesses when we get older. Gotta love science, eh?

[Oslog]

Scarlet 37, Thanks for your advice and info regarding the oxygen sat test.

[scarlet37]

   Wearing an overnite oxygen sat is only goig to detect periods of low oxygen often found in sleep apneas and not a formal way to detect sleep disorders. You may be having Hypopneas which are periods of restricted breathing paterns where you do not actually stop breathing but have a reduced air flow. Having hypopneas will cause your body to come out of restful sleep and stay in a light sleep which is not good. In stage 3 & 4 of sleep ( deep sleep) is when our bodies actually repair themselves and prepare for the next day. But remaining in light sleep our sleep patterns are always fragmented and after a week or so we are suffering from complete sleep deprivation.
  
  Please have a sleep study done- by a sleep specialist.