But it ultimately wears you down. If snoring doesn’t drive you to the doctor, fatigue may. Still, many power through, gradually becoming too tired to perform their jobs well or safely. Untreated train, bus and truck drivers clearly pose a significant public safety risk.
Definitively diagnosing the condition requires a sleep test — either at home, or more extensively in a lab. Getting wired up for bed isn’t much fun, which is another reason people may avoid seeking a diagnosis. Professional drivers and train operators also may worry that doing so could threaten their livelihood. To dodge screens for the condition, they may underreport feeling drowsy.
There may also be fear of sleep apnea treatments. The gold standard for treatment is a continuous positive airway pressure machine, which forces the airway open with pressure delivered through a mask. The prospect of sleeping with a mask, and next to a machine, can be off-putting and, for some, uncomfortable. Compliance with treatment is about 60 percent. But the devices have become far more comfortable and quiet over the years. (The newest models are entirely silent.)
For obese patients, losing weight can reverse sleep apnea. But keeping the weight off is notoriously hard.
Other options include oral appliances (think of them as fancy mouth guards), nasal patches and, for extreme cases, surgery. Costs for devices can range from hundreds of dollars to thousands. Even at the high end, you may feel a considerable boost in quality of life that could be worth the cost.
Although these options work for snoring, too, insurance won’t cover them for that condition. Similar over-the-counter oral appliances are cheaper, but less extensively studied, making it hard to say for whom they will work well. Studies document that patients use over-the-counter versions less, perhaps because they may be less comfortable than professionally customized ones. So, although snoring is highly curable, the cost and uncertainty of exactly how to do so may be a barrier for many to treat it.
There’s a public safety interest in treating sleep apnea more widely. Yet last summer, in an effort to reduce regulations, the Trump administration withdrew a proposed rule that would have required drivers of trucks and buses, as well as railroad engineers, to be tested for the condition. This may be one area where a little more regulation is warranted.
My wife has been a heroic snorer for the 54 years we’ve been married. We slept in separate rooms for years. We are back in the same bed now, but I solved the problem with Mack’s Foam Earplugs and Belsomra. I hear nothing.
What’s with this site – it must have loaded 100 ad’s – had to keep scrolling and scrolling – freaks / bimbos / duct tape on feet / strange vegetables / whores / dogs / vacation spots / you name it.
dutch,
sometimes it happens to me also,and not just here but every site i go on–it’s almost like every ad company has overcome my adblocker at once–
try shutting your computer down & when you turn it back on run a scan–
You are using the wrong browser, one intended for progs and Dindu.
Heroic revenue collecting versus heroic scrolling. Which will win out?
I have severe sleep apnea.
A few issues with the article:
>>>Definitively diagnosing the condition requires a sleep test — either at home, or more extensively in a lab.
A ~$100 recording fingertip pulse oximeter and a tablet/computer for the data display and analysis software is what you need to self determine if you have sleep apnea. Wearing the fingertip sensor and wristwatch like recorder every night for at least a week is far better than a >$5000 one night sleep study in the basement of some hospital. My wife wore it just to see what her breathing was like. Some nights her levels were great, nights when she snored the levels weren’t so great. One night is too hit or miss. Even marginal SA benefits from some intervention. When I wore it the first week, there were periods where my SpO2 levels went from 96% down to 70% and stayed there for MINUTES. This is bad, very bad. Your Saturated Peripheral Oxygen % should always be >90%, preferably >96%. The limits of the tech is ~70%, so I don’t know how low mine actually went. I regularly , once a month at a minimum, wear the pulse oximeter, just to maintain my awareness of my sleeping SpO2 levels.
>>>The gold standard for treatment is a continuous positive airway pressure machine
Not true. The new standard depends on what you will tolerate(this stuff isn’t great for intimate evenings!), and the particular flavor of SA that you are cursed with. The easiest machine to tolerate for obstructive SA is an adaptive pressure machine. Using an internal pressure sensor and an algorithm, it increases air pressure regularly to better ventilate you when you inhale and then decreases air pressure to dramatically reduce the effort to exhale. This very quiet machine with a very small nasal pillow held onto you head with a lightweight headband, imagine a couple of earplugs that rest on and slightly in your nostrils with the attached air hose, is a HUGE IMPROVEMENT over the nose and mouth covering mask and CPAP machine I started with. There is simply no comparison. The adaptive nature of the machine allows it to sense how much pressure you require on inhale and supply that much. My setup has reduced the pressure from 16″ water column on inhale when I started with this machine down to as little as 9″ of water column most recently. The baseline pressure is 7″ of water column.
One significant issue with this nasal pillow system is: you must sleep with your mouth shut for it to work. Fortunately if your mouth opens with this system, the pressurized air will cause your glottis to vibrate and that will wake you up. Well it did me. It is really unpleasant, so you learn pretty fast to sleep with your mouth shut. You can also augment with some surgical tape over your mouth. It is what it is.
There is another form of SA, Central SA, which from what I have read is very difficult to treat. This is where the brain just stops the breathing process. Scary shit.
There are also dental gadgets that secure your jaws in a way that keeps the tongue from falling back and obstructing your airway.
Another technique that I use, in addition to the machine, is a tubular cervical pillow. This is from the first aid community and automatically causes a chin thrust position, when I sleep on my back, to help keep the airway clear. The trick is to get the right diameter to just support your neck, not your shoulders, while allowing the back of your head to just touch the mattress. There are inflatable versions that greatly facilitate this, though a rolled up towel can work. Using this pillow has another positive affect in that it helps to restore the correct cervical spinal curvature that we all destroy while using these damn pixel pushing screens. This pillow alone was responsible for eliminating some pretty severe hip pain I had been having. If you don’t do anything else, try the cervical pillow. It has multiple good outcomes and is completely passive.
You do not need a Rx to get the Adaptive pressure machine. And with the recording pulse oximeter, you don’t need a Rx for that ridiculously priced sleep study. Consult with your Dr. if you must, but it is your life.
Best,
Joe
I didn’t read your comment before I posted mine. Thanks, I’ll look into the cervical pillow and the adaptive solution since it doesn’t require an RX.
Thanks.
Hi Wip,
Here are the sources I used:
CMS-50F finger mounted, recording pulse oximeter~$140 w/ bluetooth WIN software pulseoximeter.org
Resmed Airfit P10 nasal pillow system ~$110 secondwindcpap.com
Phillips Dreammaker Auto CPAP w/humidifier ~$740 secondwindcpap.com
I don’t use the humidifier, but I thought I might. You might want some extra filters for it too.
From Amazon.com
GreenMoon Inflatable roll Pillow Adjustable Cervical Roll Pillow for Neck Support,Round Neck Pillow,Neck Pain,Portable Neck Pillow (foam+rubber core)
3.9 out of 5 stars 47 customer reviews
| 9 answered questions
Price: $34.99
This has a little bb as the check valve. I didn’t RTFM, so it kept deflating. Once I got my head out, and set the bb corectly, it has stayed inflated for >6mo no problems.
Best,
Joe
Joe, this is why the internet is so great. Thank you.
A few month after my heart attack (congestive heart failure) in November, I develop central sleep apnea. I then had a sleep study done in May. It showed 80% obstructive and 20% central. For me the effect of central goes way beyond 20%. Mayo Clinic has an article on Central Apnea. According to Mayo, as the heart strengthen, the central will/might go away. The procedure I am using for heart rehabilitation is call EECP (Enhanced External Counter Pulsation). Check out EECP.com. It is phenomenal. BTW, I am on Medicare, otherwise I couldn’t afford this stuff.
For obstructive apnea I am getting fitted later this week for an oral appliance that keeps the lower jaw slightly forward to move the tongue forward enough to open the breathing pathway while sleeping. I have been using SnoreRX, but it is just to bulky.
Good luck to all in dealing with apnea. It’s terrible. I once went 2 days without sleep. Bourbon solved that for awhile until the EECP became available.
Very informative comment, Mr. Fahy. Good info.
A couple of fucked up things…
1) you have to get a sleep study twice. A before and after. $700 for each study.
2) you must get a prescription for the cpap device.
3) cpap costs $1,200+ for a device which has no high tech. In my case, the Dr., the sleep study and the cpap were all separate entities but located in what appeared to be the same office making is seem as though I was dealing with 1 entity. Confusing and, I would say, fraudulant. After a month I started to receive recurring charges. I do not remember what the charges were for but I called and had them stopped. Robbery.
4) the device has no adjustment. All adjustments have to be done by a tech and requires additional sleep studies. Robbery.
5) most people give up on the device because it won’t stay on during sleep. If I does stay on, it loses its effectiveness because it won’t stay airtight.
6) all hoses, masks and other acutrimon are considered medical devices which means exorbitant pricing. Robbery.
Now even the replacement masks require a prescription!! FUCK THEM!
There are ways around that. Shop around. Many places tell you how to avoid the prescription requirement (buy mask and headgear separately, etc.). In some cases, you can purchase just the silicone seals that wear out rather than the entire mask (ResMed Quattro is one that has replaceable parts). No prescription needed for “parts.”
Tested positive for sleep apnea.
After trying the CPAP for a year, I found out I could handle it by dropping 40 pounds of weight and stop eating all milk products.
Frank,
How did you figure out you had to quit milk products?
I went on a restricted diet for other reasons, and found that removing milk products led to reduced mucus blocking my nasal passages.
I used to have to blow my nose a lot, so I’m guessing it was a low grade allergy to milk.
I have read of others who had similar issues with milk, with varying symptoms – one would fly into a towering rage.
My sympathies. I too am recently diagnosed with sleep apnea, and am completing my first week on a CPAP with nasal pillows. Unfortunately I expect to be determined to have Central Sleep Apnea with high-drive Cheyne-Stokes Breathing – a minimal brain dis function with no cure.
There is lots to learn Best wishes.
ETA: My machine cost ~$600 and is reasonably high-tech with built in cellphone modem reporting my daily stats and capable of being upgraded over the air. My machine has some user available adjustments, and the clinician adjustments are accessible. It does sound as if you have mask leak issues. Look into nasal pillows. There is at least one on-line forum discussing SA/XPAP issues, read them with a large dose of skepticism – there is much ignorance there.
ETAII: Surgical tape hohoho. I’m using duct tape out of my garage. But, yeah, I am not a mouth breather and had no idea of the pressure involved. When my jaw relaxes in REM sleep then I blew raspberries loudly enough to awaken. Not so with duct tape.
if you guys will sleep on your side w/a pillow against your back to keep you from rolling over onto your back it will probably take care of many of your problems–
try going to bed much earlier then your wife for a few nights so that you’ll be sound asleep when she comes to bed & she will probably be able to tell you if it’s working–
I have said it before and I will say it again. If you can not eat, drink or sleep without medical intervention it is god telling you enough is enough and die already.
GEEZE.
Hey fucktard, I’ve had sleep apnea for years and I’m a BIG guy but all of my vitals are VERY GOOD. I have no precursors to cardiovascular disease, blood sugar is normal and cholesterol measurements are very low. When I exercise by walking around the City Cemetery I notice that 80 years ago many men died in their early 50’s. This was mainly due to sleep apnea wearing out the heart. Years later they figured it out and build CPAP machines which are a blessing. Much heart disease by and after mid-life has been caused by sleep apnea, and use of a CPAP machine greatly extends life.
As far a God telling me to die, I think he already decided on me. Sometime back I had a freak and sudden medical condition that for every 10 that have it, 5 immediately die and 4 more become crippled, speechless, and deaf vegetables. The 4 vegetables have a 50% of getting slammed again within a year, and usually die shortly after getting worse. I was in the 1 out of 10 that survive as a complete functioning human, and I show “0” signs of ever having it. The doctors are still amazed and shake their heads, so I reckon I ain’t dying anytime soon.
I got a CPAP back in 2009. Felt like being waterboarded. Slept worse with it than without it, so stopped using it after 6 months or so. Still alive. Considering trying the dental appliance route. My dentist makes them.
I was quoted $3,000 for that solution.
My wife has a cure that makes us both happy.
She sits on my face.
So the queefs keep you ventilated?
WIP,
The medical supply house will tell you that you can’t change the setting, but in truth, you can do it yourself. Do a web search for operating your CPAP model. It will likely be something akin to CTRL-ALT-DEL on your PC. It worked for me. Thanks everyone for the interesting commentary and new info to research.
I will do that.