How long is your Sleep Inertia?

According to the CDC and the National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH), the definition of Sleep Inertia is "a temporary disorientation and decline in performance and/or mood after awakening from sleep. People can show slower reaction time, poorer short-term memory, and slower speed of thinking, reasoning, remembering, and learning", lasting between 30 to 60 minutes. (presumably the normal range).
However, although I have not been able to find a good sturdy on the subject, sporadic reports and online chatter suggest that people with Sleep Apnea experience a much longer Sleep Inertia, especially among those who are not receiving therapy or Apniacs who may have just started their apnea therapy.
How long is your Sleep Inertia? Are you up and perked up right away when you get out of bed or does it take you a while to add 2 and 2 together?
It takes me a good hour or so after getting up, to fire on all cylinders and that is only if I have a 15 minute shower first.
How long does it really take for you to perk up? Don't be shy and let us know how long it takes you after waking up, before you are ready to fly that 787 on a trans Pacific flight.

Usually zero.

Once PAP therapy was optimized and a consistent wake-up time was in place, I experienced awakening with full faculties. It improves things a lot when the brain knows exactly when to initiate that last long session of REM so that one can awaken at the end of that sleep cycle.

Of course, getting insufficient amounts of sleep or other disruptions can throw things off temporarily. But I consider so-called sleep inertia to be a symptom of bad sleep and especially of bad sleep hygiene. Morning caffeine is often a crutch that merely hides the symptom of the sleep issues.

If I get a full 7.5 hours of sleep and wake up after full REM, my eyes pop fully open in the morning as I make myself sit on the edge of my bed for five seconds just to let my pulse rate make it safe for me to jump to my feet and start my day fully awake from the get-go. (The slow pulse in the morning was inherited.) Before PAP and sleep-hygiene adjustments, I didn't feel fully functional before noon and only after a morning of drinking artificial stimuli.

https://www.sleepfoundation.org/how-sle ... ep-inertia

I too find that my sleep inertia very much depends on which stage of sleep I happen to be, when I wake up (or my alarm clock goes off). This is something that I can check and corroborate with, using my sleep tracking smartwatch. If my alarm goes off when I am in the deep or in the middle of a REM cycle , then it will take me a significant length of time to start functioning, however if I get up in the middle of a light cycle, I am often good to go within minutes (of course after having a 15 minute shower).And I agree, the caffein shock in the morning just masks a bad nigh sleep.
Before therapy I never had a great night sleep or a good sleep inertia anyway. This was the primary reason behind seeking therapy.
I'm currently evaluating a SMART RING that tracks my sleep (among other activities) but this one can also wake me up in the morning in the midst of a light sleep cycle with a gentle vibration.
Here it is, if you are interested.

GearChange wrote: ↑

Tue Oct 10, 2023 10:40 pm

It takes me a good hour or so after getting up, to fire on all cylinders and that is only if I have a 15 minute shower first.

Set your coffee maker on your nightstand timed to brew a cup before you get up. Drink a cup in bed. Don't spill it!

Really, I've been taught by this forum to ignore how I feel when I get up. Evaluate sleep at the end of the day. Was I energetic during the day? Did I have excess sleepiness? (A bit of early afternoon sleepiness is normal.) Am I tired at bedtime, but not stressed?

ChicagoGranny wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 11, 2023 12:56 pm

, I've been taught by this forum to ignore how I feel when I get up. Evaluate sleep at the end of the day. Was I energetic during the day? Did I have excess sleepiness? (A bit of early afternoon sleepiness is normal.) Am I tired at bedtime, but not stressed?

Yep, that's me. I have never, ever in my life been a "morning" person. I was so hoping that successful cpap therapy would turn me into a "morning" person....it didn't. I had to come to terms with the cold hard fact of life that the best cpap therapy in the world wasn't going to magically turn me into something I have never, ever been in my life.
Just beyond the machine's ability to work that miracle.

As for "stress"....that's my middle name right now. I have had 2 months from hell to fuel that stress thing.

How I have felt the entire day is much more important to me than how I felt when I first woke up.
I have always been a bitch for the first couple of hours in the morning. That is unlikely to ever change.

Pugsy wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 11, 2023 1:06 pm

I have always been a bitch for the first couple of hours in the morning.

I hope, when the situation calls for it, you can turn it on later in the day. 🤬

Pugsy there is an easy solution, Just get up at the crack of noon. No more morning sluggishness or morning stress.

As for sleep inertia, mine seldom lasts for more than 2 weeks.

bwexler wrote: ↑

Wed Oct 11, 2023 6:39 pm

Pugsy there is an easy solution, Just get up at the crack of noon. No more morning sluggishness or morning stress.

As for sleep inertia, mine seldom lasts for more than 2 weeks.

Wish it were that easy to just skip the mornings and eliminate the stress.

see pugsy's sig. that's me. i have NEVER been a morning person and cpap therapy has done nothing to change that.

i will confess, however, that i pretty much know without looking when i've had a bad night with a high ahi. that's when i will wake feeling logy and it can take roughly an hour to dissipate.

A bit of inertia was weighing on me this morning. On the way to the coffee shop, War's "Why Can't We Be Friends" was pumping on the radio. My inertia was instantly gone.