I have had the same condition all of my life. My mother was the same. Do you have migraine headaches, and if so, do they start during the night with the aura?

It does not appear to be a life threatening condition. My mother lived to a great age and I am well out of middle age.

Hi mns

yeh I do get headaches sometimes but never at night, just during the day especially with an increase in noise, although it can happen without the noise

When I said that my headaches started at night I should have explained a bit more. My headaches all start with a dull head feeling that is difficult to describe. I either woke during the night or in the morning with this strange feeling. As the day progressed the pain started and grew worse, lasting for about 18 hours. The pain was usually accompanied with nausea, difficulty concentrating and irritability to mention just a few of the free added extras.

When I reached the age of sixty my fine hockey player body had been subjected to the ravages of furniture disease (chest slips into the drawers) and I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea (osa) which was treated with cpap (constant positive airway pressure). This cpap treatment solved the problem for me.

What I found out after all these years is simply that I was not getting enough oxygen at night and the condition was only diagnosed when the problem was compounded by the osa. The myth about osa is that only obese people have the problem. That is not true because I am 6' 2" and only 186 lbs. My osa was not an issue when I was younger but because of the oxygen desaturation levels I had difficulty staying on task when there were distractions. I could not concentrate on my work if I could hear a radio or see something moving or hear people talking and it was very tiring and irritating. Even with my five kids and my 13 grandchildren around I would periodically need to go to a quiet room by myself for 20 minutes to kind of recover. The problem we share in common is gone in large part for me. People have seen a change in my social behaviour and I enjoy such activity more. When this condition was bothering me I only liked to socialize with another couple or two at one time. I hated crowds and restaurants and was only happy at work when I had a closed in office with a solid door and no windows.

You are right in going to the doc. And I hope his solution is not simply to push a pill on you. They gave me pills (bellergal spacetabs) that did nothing but make me stupid.

You could rent a reporting oximeter for about $100-$120 for a month to check your oxygen levels at night.

Good luck, I hope you find out what works for you. I would also be interested in how you make out.