The cause wasn’t a medical issue…
It’s really important to get a good night’s sleep so you can start your day feeling fresh. Did you know that fatigue is one of the most common causes of car and work-related accidents? Not getting enough rest at night can cause more serious issues than just putting you in a bad mood.
This man from the U.S. often jerked awake at night because he couldn’t breathe. He decided to get to the bottom of it!
Bad nights
Luis Navarro, a man from the U.S. often woke up from shock at night because he couldn’t breathe. This happened several times a night, forcing him to stare at the ceiling every few hours. Friends and family of the bad sleeper let him know that his mood was taking a turn for the worse and he often had bags under his eyes.
This wasn’t always the case. In the past, Luis was one of the lucky ones was able to fall asleep within five minutes. In the car, in the bus, in an unknown house: to him it didn’t matter. And once he fell asleep, the only that would get him up was his alarm in the morning.
How could he possibly start sleeping so poorly all of a sudden?
Doing research
Like several people with unknown symptoms, Luis decided to look up the what could be causing his issues on Google. During his search, he got in contact with people experiencing the same issues who described their situations on various forums. The causes that Luis found were widely varied.
Too much blue light, too much caffeine, stress, sleep apnea… Apparently there were lots of issues that could be disturbing his night’s sleep. Finding out the specific reason behind Luis’ restless nights was a real chore. His first step was to stop drinking coffee.
Curious to know if this helped? Read on now.
Attempts
Luis quickly got used to his life without caffeine. But even after keeping up with it for two weeks, his condition didn’t improve. The problem must be something else entirely. Luis decided to minimize the amount of blue light he was getting throughout the day. This could be the cause of his sleeping issues.
“Blue light” refers to the light that our smartphones, laptops, and TVs emit. Our brains interpret this cool-colored light as daylight, thus messing with the melatonin in our bodies, the chemical that makes you tired. Too much blue light before going to sleep can lead to serious sleeping issues.
Was this the cause of Luis’ bedtime problems?
Even more tries
But no, reducing his screen time and making a habit of leaving his phone in the living room before going to bed didn’t help either. Another cause for his poor night’s rest was being too stressed. But Luis was getting stressed out because he couldn’t find the cause…
Besides this frustration, Luis wasn’t overly stressed. This couldn’t be it, either. Luis read on a number of forums about a condition called sleep apnea which causes you to temporarily stop breathing while you sleep and jerk awake. Most people who suffer from sleep apnea don’t notice it at night, but others are aware that they’ve woken up.
Was Luis part of this group?
Doctors visit
Luis’ doctor referred him to a sleep specialist. The specialist informed him that it was highly unlikely at his age and with his physical condition that he had developed sleep apnea. This condition is most common in men over 50 or who are overweight.
But it still might be the cause, so Luis went in for a sleep study. He had to sleep a whole night with numerous wires attached to him so the specialists could review his bodily functions. This data would then need to be analyzed, so Luis wouldn’t have his answer straight away.
After a week of waiting, Luis was invited back to discuss his results
The results
The results were negative, or in Luis’ case: positive. It appeared he wasn’t suffering from sleep apnea. Luis was of course happy to hear that he wasn’t suffering from any medical issues, but it was still a bit of a let-down. What could be causing his issues?
Luis was at his wits’ end. He made several posts on online forums to figure out what the root cause of his sleeping problems could be, but the answers he received were no different than the things he had already ruled out. He was going to have to get creative to find out what the cause was.
Curious to know how he went about solving the problem? Read on now!
The plan
Luis came up a with a clever plan. He was jerking awake numerous times a night because he wasn’t getting any air. There had to be a reason for this. Luis decided to buy himself an infrared camera, a camera that can film in the dark, to film himself sleeping.
There was the possibility that the issue wasn’t a visible one, but it was worth a shot. If the specialists at the hospital couldn’t figure it out, he was going to have to do his own study. Going through 8 hours of video was a small price to pay if it meant finding out what was causing his sleeping issues.
What he discovered would shock him. Read on now for the rest of this story!
Tech store
There was a tech store in the mall close to Luis’ home that would surely sell infrared cameras. After looking at cameras by himself for a while, he decided to get help from an employee. There were so many options that he could hardly see straight.
The employee asked him what he needed the camera for. Was he looking to film inside a bird house? Or go out exploring the woods at night? Or was he hanging up a camera in the living room for protection? When Luis told him the real reason, the man couldn’t help but laugh. He had just the thing.
With his new purchase packed up neatly in a bag, Luis headed home.
Installation
Luis installed the camera on his nightstand next to his bed. He plugged it in and connected it to his WiFi network so the footage it captured would be uploaded and saved directly to the cloud. To make things easier for himself, Luis put a lighter next to the camera.
Using the lighter, if ever he woke up in the middle of the night, he could use the flame to stand out on the footage. This meant he wouldn’t have to watch the full eight hours of film; he could fast-forward until he saw a flame and then review the footage from the minutes leading up to it. After an hour, everything was ready to go.
Luis didn’t know what was coming next…
The night falls
That night, Luis brushed his teeth, laid out his clothes for the next day and crawled into bed. He double-checked to make sure the camera was on and then turned out the light. It took some time for him to pass out, but after a while he was fast asleep.
What he didn’t know, was that that night, something would happen that really shook things up. It had something to do with a character who we have introduced yet, but one who plays a big role in this story: Luis’ cat.
This became clear when Luis went to watch the footage the next morning…
Footage
Luis opened the footage from the night before on his laptop. It didn’t take long before he was scratching his head at the screen. Had the store employee scammed him? How was this possible? On his screen, Luis could see that the camera had only saved 30 minutes of footage.
When Luis watched the footage back, it became clear pretty quickly as to why. It was clear that his cat, that’s crazy about lasers and other lights, wanted to play with the red light on the camera. Luis watched as a little paw waved back and forth on the screen before it suddenly went black.
The cat had managed to turn off the camera… Time for attempt number two.
Leave a Reply