I have never had a doctors diagnosis. I became aware of my apnea when I was having an EEG with sleep session. The tech rolled a towel up and wedged it behind my head which held the top of my head off the bed so the electrodes were not disturbed. He told me to go to sleep. I have stayed up the night before so sleeping should have been easy.

As I relaxed to sleep, I would end up gasping for air. After a few attempts to relax, I realized that I was breathing purposefully but if I relaxed, I stopped breathing. I was never able to do the sleep part of the EEG because I would stop breathing and start gasping.

Since then, I have tried different sleeping positions and have problems breathing when my head is forward and especially forward and to the left. The sleep doc has tried twice with a take home sleep test. The first time, the recorder did not record. The second time, I did not have a apnea episodes.

But, my wife has observed many apnea events. As I said, up to 16 per hour.

My father died from a 40 year struggle with Central Apnea. He and my mother denied it and he refused to get treated. It slowly took his mind from him. When we'd go camping or skiing and sleep in the same area/room , I could hear him stop breathing then start back up with a huffing and puffing.

My wife goes to bed before me because she has become so sensitized to listening to my breathing. Sleep has been a struggle for me for 12 years. Other than maintaining good sleep position discipline, there is not much that can be done for Central Sleep Apnea. There are the pulseOx alarms and a diaphragm stimulator that can be surgically implanted.

I can tell when I have had an episode. I have very stressful dreams. My wife can predict my bad days by how she hears me sleeping and breathing in the early morning. She knows to try to get me back onto my back. As I said, it has been a long struggle but we make do as best we can.

Once, I fell asleep during a long car ride. My head was hanging forward for hours. When I woke up and got home, my pulse and blood pressure would drop very low. It took a while to get the neck inflammation down. Now I know to ice my upper neck to reduce the inflammation faster.

I hope you can find a good sleep position. An adjustable bed may be a solution until you get help to resolve the cause.

My best to you.