You might want to trade the law school studying for a sleep study
During my first two years of law school, I hardly ever found myself having stress dreams, or any dreams at all. While this might be a desirable alternative to waking up in a cold sweat from your nightmare of Sara Faherty telling you that, for some reason, you can’t write your final exam, it may be a sign of something even more disturbing going on. Okay, in actuality nothing is more disturbing for us U of T Law students than this scenario, but a lack of dreaming may be a sign of a sleep disorder–at least it was for me.
For some backstory, I have struggled with low energy levels for several years. Even when I was in high school and undergrad, I would always come home and take a nap that was at least a couple of hours long. Sleeping in or going to bed early didn’t do much for my energy, and my problems really ramped up when I started law school. Obviously, law school is demanding enough when you don’t feel tired all the time. I was constantly struggling to keep my eyes open in class despite drinking multiple cups of coffee and cans of Redbull, but I still felt like my lack of energy was my own fault. I thought that I was just a lazy person and blamed myself for always feeling sleepy. It was hard to keep on top of my readings (which remains a struggle, but for other reasons) and I fought to make it to all of my early-morning classes (I did not succeed). Due to my self-blame, I never thought to raise the issue of my excessive daytime sleepiness with my doctor or any other medical professionals. In fact, my mind was only turned to the possibility that what I was experiencing was not normal when my orthodontist made some observations and inquired about whether I had ever had a sleep study done. His brother is also a lawyer, which is not relevant to the story of my sleep, but a fun connection nonetheless!
After some time waiting, I got in for a sleep study, which was an extremely odd experience. It was just before my 2L first semester exams, and I had to go to an office building for around 9PM. The staff were thankfully very nice and set me up with a bunch of wires and an oxygen monitor. Then, I had to try to go to sleep despite it being several hours before my usual bedtime and the glowing red camera light I knew was watching over me. Even in the face of my sleepiness, it took me what felt like hours to achieve what was ultimately a very restless sleep. I was woken up around 5:45 am and then got to leave with the glue from the wires still caked in my hair.
My sleep study results then took a few more months to come in, and I finally got the amazing news that I have obstructive sleep apnea, hence my constant lack of energy (the ‘amazing’ is supposed to be sarcastic, but in hindsight, it really was life-changing). During my sleep study, I stopped breathing (AKA had an ‘apnea’) an average of about 19 times an hour…which is not ideal. I’m not a medical professional, so take this all with a grain of salt, but I was told that everyone has the occasional apnea when they are sleeping, and over five per hour is considered sleep apnea. 19 events per hour would be classified as moderate sleep apnea, as the threshold for severe is 30. Every time I was having an event, my body would wake me up (so I didn’t die), but I never felt it because the waking was so brief. So basically, I was waking up over a hundred times a night, which as you can imagine had an absolutely devastating effect on the quality of sleep I was getting. When you’re waking up so often, it’s incredibly difficult for your body to reach the deeper REM stage of sleep, which as you may know, is where dreaming happens. Apparently it can also just make it more difficult to remember your dreams, or can even trigger nightmares (so sorry if these are law school related), but thankfully I did not experience many. As you might know from your dad or grandpa, the most effective sleep apnea treatment is a continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP machine. As much as I was embarrassed at the thought of having to sleep like Darth Vader every night, my sleepiness was affecting my life (and overall health) so much that I had absolutely no hesitation in doing whatever I could to fix it. Getting the CPAP machine was another long and expensive process, but from the first night I slept with it, I felt an immediate change. I actually felt well-rested when I woke up in the morning and didn’t have a pounding headache (another sleep apnea symptom). The machine was surprisingly comfortable and quiet—I haven’t looked back since.
I’ve now been treating my sleep apnea for about nine months and to say it has completely changed my life would be an understatement. I wish I realized earlier that the way I was feeling was not normal, and I probably would have if I didn’t just chalk my low energy up to a personal failing. Sleep apnea is not only for old or otherwise unhealthy people. In my case, I think my large tonsils are to blame–and you could have it too. If you are sleeping a normal amount but never feeling rested, it may not just be law school. I would highly recommend that anyone else dealing with excessive daytime sleepiness (like falling asleep constantly in class, or when watching TV) look into getting a sleep study. Sleep apnea is also far from the only sleep disorder that could be causing issues. When I first got my diagnosis, I was so embarrassed to tell anyone, but in opening up more about it, a lot of people were thankful to me for sharing my experience. If I can help others who are going through a similar situation to mine, then I will gladly tell everyone at the law school that I have sleep apnea (please don’t make fun of me!).