My story of sleep apnea is the unfortunate but classic self-diagnosis case. All through my twenties I was constantly exhausted, and finally around age 30 I went to a doctor to ask about it; he told me everyone's exhausted and literally threw me out of his office. This cycle repeated itself over the next ten years with few results

 Kevin Kruse (right) and Ben Rubin presenting at ePatient Connections 2010

What changed everything was that I started working on some medical education projects related to sleep medicine and, as a result, learned about sleep apnea. It was like a light bulb went off:  "Oh, so this is why I choke myself awake at night!"  I saw a new doctor, explained the fatigue and night-time breathing problems, and asked for a sleep study. He agreed and the results confirmed that I have intermediate to severe sleep apnea and I got a CPAP.

Self-Tracking is a path to Self-Knowledge

I was really excited to start using the Zeo, partly because I wanted to see the difference that the CPAP machine made on REM and Deep sleep. Like a lot CPAP users, my compliance isn't great. I know all the health reasons why I should use it, but it's just a pain in the butt and I often don't put it on. So I was curious to see how my sleep data changed with and without the CPAP.

To my surprise, I didn't see much of a difference in Deep sleep with the CPAP. Even with 8 hours of sleep I only get about 15 minutes of Deep and I still feel exhausted.

This is part of why my compliance with CPAP isn't great; unlike other CPAP users I know, I don't feel rested or better when I use it.

At first, I was really puzzled by this, but I was also using the Zeo website to track other sleep habits. It pointed out to me that I'm always on caffeine, which is true.

Because I'm tired all the time, I'm a big coffee drinker even at night. I didn't think it was a problem, since I can always fall asleep immediately, but that caffeine could be interfering with my ability to get Deep sleep even when I'm on CPAP. So now I'm in the process of weaning myself off caffeine and I'm using the Zeo to see if I can get my Deep sleep up while staying on CPAP.

Your Body Revolts when you Skimp on Sleep

In 2009 I launch the e-Patient Connections conference--the first time I've ever done a conference before--and it was tons of work, full of mistakes and the usual "start up"experience.

While I worked my butt off to focus on the details, what went out the window was exercise, healthy eating, and sleep.

I spent a year working like a lunatic to make sure a 2-day event would be great and by the time it arrived, I had literally made myself sick. I looked like crap, felt like crap, and was loosing my voice. I sipped hot honey-water for two days and killed my vocal chords to get through it.

So for 2010 I made a promise to myself that I'd work my butt off, but not at the expense of my health. I really do believe we need to have more of a "corporate athlete" mentality; to focus as much on energy management as we do on time management. For a couple months before the conference I ate clean 6 days a week, hit most of my workouts, and used Zeo to make sure I was getting a decent ZQ.  

It made a world of difference; I dropped ten pounds and felt good and focused. E-patient Connections is all about the "connections" and this year I had the energy to really get around and socialize during the event and hit all the stuff at night.

You and your doctor are in this together

I think we're just at the beginning of the technology adoption curve when it comes to personal biometric devices--both in terms of people using them, and of doctors being receptive to the data. It's currently the "innovators" who are sharing their DNA test results from 23andMe, or their sleep data from Zeo.

As with the broader e-patient movement, those who are faced with more acute or serious conditions are more likely to have the motivation to take action and embrace what personal biometric devices can do. Hopefully as the devices become more common and the benefits become more obvious, we'll see broader usage in the general population.

For years, I didn't go more than a day without at least a coffee in the morning; otherwise the headaches would begin.  My typical, caffeinated day looked like this:

• 1-2 medium sized coffees every morning
• 1 can or bottle of diet soda at lunch
• 1 small or medium iced coffee or diet soda in the afternoon--but not every afternoon.

Interestingly enough, I never felt that caffeine disrupted my sleep or impacted the rest of my lifestyle much.

It's Not You, It's Me

That said, I still wanted to see if I could go without.  I volunteered to participate in an experiment studying the effects of caffeine on the body. For control purposes, one regularly caffeinated person (me) would quit cold turkey for a week while another person (who very rarely consumes any caffeine) would have 3 servings a day.

• Days 1-3:  The first three days were torture--I had headaches and felt exhausted, not to mention cranky.  It was hard to focus on normal tasks, and I felt much clumsier.

• Days 4-5: The headaches started to subside.  I had completly changed my breakfast routine --instead of that cup of coffee, I had a glass of cold water and a bowl of cereal.

• Days 6+:  Six days in, I was listening to my body more closely. Instead of masking my exhaustion with caffeine, I focused instead on getting the sleep I needed to feel good during the day. For me, this meant going to bed earlier; a possible result of this change was that I also started getting more REM sleep.  I’m now averaging 40 more minutes of REM Sleep per night since the switch!

My Life Post Break-Up

For me, quitting caffeine became a lesson in listening to my body and learning what it needs to feel healthy, day and night. I noticed that I experience fewer spikes and lulls in my energy levels throughout the day.  I pay more attention when my body tells me its tired and act accordingly instead of masking it with caffeine.  Now, if I have any caffeinated beverage, I drink a lot less of it than I did before.  To help me maintain these changes, I developed the following rules:

1. Don't schedule morning meetings. My body really craved that morning cup of coffee and I found it was easier to let those feelings subside than to deal with them while I was trying to do something important.
2. Exercise more to feel more energized.
3. Get back to (food) basics. Eating healthy food and drinking lots of water--instead of coffee or sodas--gave me consistent energy through the day.

What about you; have you experimented with your daily caffeine habit?  What did you find?  Comment here, or join the discussion on the forum.

Emily (ZQ:91) is responsible for creating and designing company advertising, as well as the Zeo and myZeo websites.  She's always looking for new and informative ways to spread the word about Zeo.