Scientists Find Rare Gene Behind Short Sleepers

i have been a short sleeper all of my life. i also sleep with a CPAP machine which shows i sleep an average of 3 hours 27 minutes per night.i am also diabetic and have fibromyalgia. i also have other medical conditions which may or may not be related.

i feel exhausted all of the time.i have never suffered from depression and enjoy my life and the people in it.

chronic pain has also been a contributing factor in the amount of time i sleep which decreases slowly.

i am sure my lack of sleep and apnea that went untreated for twenty years has been the main cause of the sever muscle wastage that i have experienced especially over the last five years

my thigh muscles are non existent and all muscles throughout my body including in my eyes and face have noticeably declined. i have associated weight loss.i feel that all of my conditions are related and feed off each other.

the biggest disadvantage is the memory loss both short and long term that affects my ability to administer medications on time and often miss them altogether including insulin used to treat the diabetes

in spite of all of this and the debilitating pain i manage to keep my home well and take care of my elderly father and intellectually handicaped granddaughter as well as a teenage foster daughter.

i am simply to busy to give in or dwell on my condition.

there are times i cant stand up and times when i sit on the floor to vaccum clean.

yes it takes me around 12 hours to accomplish what a fit person could do in 2 or 3 hours but i wouldnt want to be anywhere else but here with my family. it would be nice to be pain free though so i could do a little more and enjoy gardening again which is on of the passions i had to give up'

a positive mental attitude is essential as is being needed and feeling useful.

i am sure this condition will one day be found to be a syndrome and some or all of my conditions will be found to be related. the list is as follows

diabeties

fibromyalgia

apnea

wasted muscles

retnal myopathy

headaches

bone disease of the spine

misshapen wrists

exhaustion

prone to kidney stones and gall stones

erratic heartbeat

insomnia

and on and on and on.

dearn walker of HI 9:20AM August 19, 2009