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Be Thankful If They Just Snore
The NYT is running has a lengthy piece in their weekend supplement about sleep disorders. Besides a certain amount of humor value, the article covers sleep terrors and sleepwalking and even weirder disorders.
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Escher was the first MC and Giger invented the HR department.
I have sleep apnea. The fix for it saved my career, my marraige, and maybe my life. For years, I woke up 2-3 times a night. My wife told me of my snoring, my stopping breathing & gasping for air while asleep, etc. I was always dog-tired, taking naps every opportunity, etc. Went to the doc. He sent me to a sleep study clinic. :)
Turns out a flap in my throat closes off and prevents breathing while I am sleeping. I thought something like that happened, but I thought it happened like one or twice an hour. Turns out, if untreated, it happens about every 15 seconds while I am asleep. The "cure" is a CPAP machine (controlled pressurized air pump, I think) that keeps a very small steady air flow (about 1/10th normal) down my throat while sleeping, to keep the flap, that closes off my breathing, open.
Since using the CPAP, I now sleep normally. 8 hrs and then I am truly awake and alert, for the first time in maybe 15 years. This is a new thing for me. My medical insurance covered every penny of the clinic visits and all the CPAP stuff. (Since using this, I have gotten 3 doctorates, made $30B, and sired 47 children.;P) I do think that the life of my family has improved by finally having a husband and father who is "there" all the time. Well, as "there" as a geek gets.
If you don't feel alert all the time, go to the doctor. Find out why. And if the doctor does not help you, dump him or her and go find one who will help you. Keep looking until you do. It really is worth it to see life without a haze of sleepiness.
My wife has told me that I've screamed at the wall, talked with her about problems with my code, and have actually punched her in the face twice. I have absolutely no memory of any of this.
Years ago I used to run a sleep lab and this behavior is not sleep apnea. You also sound like you have a primary diagnosis of sleep apnea, but this behavior is a sleep parasomnia, possibly a REM related dissasociation that might result from severe sleep fragmentation. From your other symptoms, yes you do sound like you have sleep apnea and I should say that surgery is only effective in about 50% of patients. More effective is something called NCPAP (nasal continuously popitive airway pressure) or BiPAP (Bilevel positive airway pressure) depending upon the application. It is a small mask you wear connected to an air pump to provide positive air pressure to your airway maintaining a patent pathway for while you sleep. It is cumbersome, but very effective. Ask your physician about it.
Most of my patients also found weight loss to be dramatically helpful along with an exercise regimen combined with use of the NCPAP to maintain good sleep architecture. Also, posture during sleep can be important and I would suggest mechanisms to help you sleep on your side and avoid sleeping on your back.
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