sleep symptoms

[bluecheese]

I am a 32 year old male who is 245 pounds and about 5 foot 10.

I  have very specific symptoms of derealization (not so much depersonalization).  
Have you ever had nitrous oxide in the dental chair?   This is EXACTLY how I feel all the time,  I might as well be carrying around a tank of the stuff with me.    I occasionally also wake up at night unable to breath and with a racing pulse (loop recorder showed normal sinus tachycardia in excess of 165).

I don't have insurance, and the wait for a sleep study is sooo long at the charity clinic...So i did my own sleep experiment and had a friend watch my pulse oximiter while I slept,  my o2 is just constantly low,  i don't stop and gasp for air like apnea....it's just constnatly low,   90, 91,  94,  84, 88, 90... those are some actual numbers and it just steadily stays low,  but when I'm awake it's usually 95+  but never below 93   (i'm 500+ feet sea level)

What may this be and  would my symptoms of derealization  be consistant with this?    By the way,  my hemoglobin has been high-normal consistently.   but everything else normal....Chest xray,  echo, EKG...all that stuff is normal.
Oh, and is there anything I can do to "hold on" whle I wait on this sleep study?

THANKS

[Cleveland Clinic]

You probably have obstructive sleep apnea/obesity hypoventilation.  I think that in your case you may have hypopnea, meaning that you don't actually stop breathing but you come close.  The only good way to treat this is to lose weight by dieting and exercise.  the problem with being constantly tired and sleepy/high as you described, which by the way are very common in this condition, is that you won't be motivated to exercise.  CPAP can help with taking away that feeling and allow you to diet and exercise in order to ultimately lose weight and be symptom-free.  CPAP, therefore, is not the solution to this problem.  Best of luck.