Sleep - Culmination of Ideas

It has been a long time since I woke up refreshed. I've have tried many things. I want to record my thoughts now, because I have learned some important things.

I was told by the radiologist at the orthopeadics center that I have the largest set of lungs he had ever seen. He had to use 2 pieces of film in order to get a whole shot of the lung, and he has never had to do that before. The entire lower lobes of the lungs were on the second piece of film.

I have noticed that when I sit up, my mid-section presses against my lungs. It makes it very difficult for me to fill the lower lobes of the lungs. When I use a lot of strength and focus to fill those lobes, I relax rather quickly. That's why meditation works so well for me.

When I am waiting to get sleepy after taking night-time meds, I am sitting up. I should lie down to fill my lungs completely in order to feel sleepy sooner.

Now I want to talk about the arms.

I take anxiety medication. One of my most prominent anxiety physical symptoms is tingling or rather a skin sensitivity in the forearms and hands. This is why I always wear short sleeve shirts, and may even be why I don't like to dress formally, because it typically requires long sleeve shirts.

For most of my adult life, I have slept on my side, and would switch sides often all night. The bottom arm would be moved so as not to be under me, and often was used to support my head. I think this is because I have such a big upper body mass, especially when I was younger.

The mattress didn't have enough give to allow my lungs to expand if I laid on my back. Within 45 minutes of laying on my back, I would feel my feet get numb and cold. I always assumed it was because I had such huge calves on my legs, that they were not sinking enough into the mattress, and thus restricting the blood flow and oxygen deliver to the lower part of my legs. I now think the expansion of my lungs were also part of that problem.

When I laid on my side, it allowed the lung on the upper side to fully expand, filling the lower lobe. I slept mostly on my left side, using my left had to support my head and neck. I did this for so long, I am unable to straighten my left arm completely. I have lost about 15% of range of motion in the left elbow.

When I came to Texas, I bought a new bed. I investigated mattresses on the WWW, and found the softest mattress I could find - 13 inches of memory foam.

This is the first mattress upon which I am able to sleep while lying on my back. My feet don't go numb when I lie on my back on this mattress.

Once I got new hips, the blood-flow to the feet was even better.

Now that I have lost some weight, socks can fit around my calf. In the past, no sock could stretch enough to fit my calf, so I always bought short socks. Now I can pull winter socks all the way over the calf, and they stay there.

The very few times I got a good night's sleep this year, I have had socks on the whole night.

When I sleep on my back, the right arm is up and curled above my head. The left arm is lying by my side. I have an unconscious habit of putting my left had on my chest, which then causes the left hand to get cold. sometimes this is so bad, it wakes me up.

When I begin to fall asleep, I get hot. If I have too many blankets on at that time, it keeps me from falling asleep. I have to make sure it is cool enough in the room in order to fall asleep.

I have to make sure my right arm stays under a blanket tough, otherwise, later in the night, my right arm pit gets so cold, it wakes me up.

The few times I have slept well this year, I have had a Tee-shirt over my underwear. And in each of those cases, both arms have been curled up over my head.

I have just woken up as I write this. I noticed today that both arms were raised to lay above my head. As I woke up, I noticed how slowly I was breathing, and how deeply. Both lower lobes of the lungs were being used.

Other times during the year, when I have woken up at night, I have noticed how shallow my breathes were. It was almost like I wasn't breathing at all. It was like I learned to create some kind of convection of air in my lungs, to circulate air slowly with almost no muscle movement. This is how I probably breathed at night most of my adult night.

I have been trying to lessen my carbon-footprint by cutting back on heat. We had an ice-storm last night, so I left he heat at a higher temperature all night. I think that also contributed to a better night's sleep.

Another difference from last night was a medication change I tried for the first time. I decided to take mt anti-anxiety medication at night, instead of in the morning. I think I will continue to do this. It may make it possible for me to wear a long sleeve night shirt or a half-sleeve night shirt, thus slowing heat loss in the arm pits during the night.