Sleep or Not to Sleep?

Have you ever noticed that fixing one problem can stir up another? It can feel like a never-ending battle when it comes to getting stronger. It seems to happen every time I address a problem. When I fixed my squat depth, I uncovered a hip issue. When I fixed my elbows, I uncovered a strength deficiency in my wrist that I'm now addressing. But, most recently I addressed a long-ignored issue with my sleep.

For as long as I can remember, I struggled to get a good night’s sleep. I fell asleep quickly, I just don’t stay asleep. Actually, one of the problems is that I fall asleep too well...more than once behind the wheel. At night, I sleep for around an hour and then it’s up and down all night. I know I snore, but until recently, I ignored how bad it was. With some encouragement, I pursued a sleep study and was diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. It wasn’t horrible, but more than enough to affect my mood, energy level, and mental clarity during the day. I was falling asleep fast, and in stage four within 20 minutes of falling asleep, I stayed in stage four for only 15 minutes, but came out and never made it past stage two again the rest of the night. Nothing life threatening was happening, but clearly enough was happening to screw my day up.

CPAP

Now that I have a CPAP, I'm beginning to feel better. I've been sleeping with it for about two weeks. For most of the first week, it would end up lying neatly on the night stand with me having no recollection of how it got there. At some point in the night, I would simply take it off and put it away. I wondered if I'd ever be able to sleep with it. Two weeks in and I’m not taking it off as often, but it does still wake me up once or twice a night. I’m just not use to the mask yet. The last two nights, I slept uninterrupted for longer than I have in any recent history and I feel great. Even though I was still taking it off some earlier in the second week, my output at work and in the gym vastly improved. Over the last two nights, I took the mask off only once during the night, and put it back on as soon as I was aware of it. I’m sleeping so well that I don’t toss and turn like I am used to, and therein lies the problem. I slept so well, for so long, and in the same position the last two nights, that my right shoulder is killing me. I prefer sleeping on my side, but I’ve never had the problem of being on one side to long. Remember what I said in the opening, “It can feel like a never ending battle...?”

So what do I do now? I know I feel so well that I can’t do away with the CPAP. It’s way to valuable in terms of the way I am feeling. I’m going to start by trying to back sleep and see how that goes. I will also throw in some light shoulder work to compliment my arm “prehab” work. I need to get some blood flowing through there to keep them fresh. If that doesn’t help at least I’ll have some cut up shoulders and arms to compliment my incredible calves. And if all else fails, I’ll do what all other powerlifters do with nagging injuries, I’ll ignore it.