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Comment by cuckcuckspruce | Hacker News Reader

I can do this too! I was born with a superpower, one that ensures I can fall asleep anywhere, anytime - untreated obstructive sleep apnea!

With obstructive sleep apnea, you too can fall asleep in those stressful situations like driving, in the middle of a fire drill at your desk, and while attending an important work presentation!

(On the serious, I have an appointment to get a CPAP tomorrow and in the meantime I sleep sitting up with my feet elevated and avoid most of the ill effects, but it's only a short term solution because it must be weighted against the possibility of a DVT or other blood clot.)

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I have an appointment to get a CPAP tomorrow

Make sure they give you one of the newer machines that has an SD card in it. And it must be an APAP machine, not CPAP. The APAP continuously adjusts air pressure to match your current needs.

The SD card records details of every breath you take. You then plug that info into SleepyHead software and see what's happening to your body.

This is important, because in general the insurance companies only care that you use your machine 4+ hrs per night. They are happy if your AHI (a measure of how bad your apnea is) is below 5. But that still means you are having 5 serious events per hour. Which is bad, unless you're an insurance company.

Go to cpaptalk.com and apneaboard.com and learn how to interpret your SleepyHead data and fine tune your machine to get your AHI down to 0. Works for many younger people. Old folks tend to have other medical issues that keep them from getting full benefit from CPAP. Even they can still be helped; e.g. there are more sophisticated machines that will even help people breathe in and out if their body/brain can no longer do it automatically.

Here is a starting point: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Positive_airway_pressure

Went to my appointment, doctor wrote an order for an APAP machine, called the medical supply company who is working with the insurance and will call me later today (or will receive a call from me tomorrow morning when they open). Thanks for the advice.

Good luck with your CPAP. When I got mine it was like my brain firing on 8 cylinders instead of 3. Do beware that it can take a couple of weeks of use, during which your body and brain may be a little "bewildered" at getting all this oxygen during sleep!

Oh and your insurance (if you live in a country that has it) may require specific amounts of usage in the first month. Be very aware of that, it's easy to be "non-compliant" because you took it off in the middle of the night.

I'm on month 3 of CPAP use and I didn't get the "firing on 8 cylinders instead of 3" effect -- I can't say I've noticed any change (aside from "my spouse is willing to share a room with me" which isn't unsubstantial). How long did it take before this feeling kicked in?

I’ve been using a CPAP for a couple years, and remember everyone making it seem like there would be an instant change that supercharges everything. This never noticeably happened, but thinking back, things without a doubt improved over time. I mostly notice when I don’t have my CPAP for a night, and I wake up feeling like I didn’t get enough sleep with a sore throat.

The main things I notice now... I used to be able to sleep 12 hours a night easy and wake up tired, now I can hardly sleep more than 8 hours and function completely fine on 6 hours. I can drive for more than 2 hours without having to pull over and take a nap. I don’t feel like I’m about to doze off at work regularly. My productivity has overall increased, but it was a gradual change that I don’t notice unless I think back to my productivity in the past.

Before I started CPAP therapy, I was in a lot of pain. Car accident didn't help. I just dragged on wearing down little by little. My apnea got worse to the point that my partner was worried I wouldn't start breathing after stopping. The first day after I felt a lot less pain. I was still very groggy, but I hadn't felt that good in a long time. It took a while to get up to full speed and feeling normal. Months of barely sleeping took months to recoup from. I still like 9.5 hours of sleep. When I start to decline in performance or hit a wall, that's usually what I try to get back to first, because that's just hard to get squeezed in so I get less usually. Then checking if I'm getting enough exercise and calorie intake.

It took me about 5 weeks.

If I lapse on usage, I find myself unable to really feel like I'm working at 100% efficiency. It takes a few weeks of nightly use before I feel good again.

You may not feel a night and day difference. It can be subtle, but things like not needing multiple naps a day can really make a difference to your quality of life.

If your SO says you snore, or choke and stop breathing, PAY ATTENTION. Get a sleep study!

> I have an appointment to get a CPAP tomorrow

Get it, the difference is huge. Be aware that it's one of those things that's like 10 good things and 8 bad things; but the good outweighs the bad.

I’ve been using a CPAP consistently for a couple years now. Can still fall asleep in under 5 minutes. Only difference is now I can usually control when I fall asleep.

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