Posted by Bob G on December 25, 1998 at 20:10:28:
In Reply to: CH and sleep apnea posted by Cai on December 25, 1998 at 16:24:20:
Almost all the folks at this site know there is a connection between sleep and cluster headaches. But what that connection is nobody really knows. We've all been brought out of a sound sleep with a cluster, one, two, three times a night. Night after night. Pretty soon you fear going to sleep but you know if you don't get proper rest the attacks will continue and maybe get worse. It's a "You're damned if you do and damned if you don't" situation. As for the sleep apnea, there may very well be a connection. The machine you refer to is an air pump. You don't breath 'through' it. The machine pumps air into you at a steady and even rate. It's more like it breaths 'for' you. There is a very high rate of success with the machines in fighting sleep apnea. These machine are "air pumps" and not "oxygen pumps". Air and oxygen are not the same thing. While it is true that the more air you breath the more oxygen you would receive but, when cluster suffers speak of taking oxygen they are refering to breathing pure oxygen
through a regulator from oxygen storage tank.
Hope you all had a pain free Merry Christmas.