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Comment by snuxoll | Hacker News Reader

I know I suffer from sleep apnea (poor sleep quality, relatives have noticed me stop breathing for brief periods while asleep, loud snoring) but I literally cannot bring myself to get a sleep study done because I know it's not going to be cheap, and to top it off I don't even know how expensive it's going to be in the first place.

It's not like I can't afford to pay either, I do have some money stashed in my HSA but when I'm trying to get to a point where I have a full years deductible in it to cover a true emergency it's a bit of a gut punch to suddenly take $X00-$1X00 out to wear a device and then have a technician analyze the data from it.

All of this is why my first step right now is to keep losing weight, because I know weighing 230lbs as a 5'10" male isn't helping me at all either.

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You don't need to do a full sleep study. Standard procedure these days is to prescribe an at-home sleep apnea test. A sleep health company will send you a little monitoring device by mail. You wear it while sleeping during the night. It measures your pulse, blood oxygen levels, breathing patterns, etc, and transmits your data back to the medical provider. After about a week, they send you and your doctor the results.

Then your doctor will prescribe auto-cpap therapy. Hopefully health insurance defers some of the cost, but in any case it shouldn't be ruinous for someone with an HSA. You can get a Phillips Dreamstation off Amazon for $620.

Please go get tested.

Or if your family has definitely seen apnea events, just get an apap off Craigslist and a new mask and give it a test run.

Edit- Sorry didn't see this exact comment below, so I concur

You can get a used CPAP from Second Wind:

https://www.secondwindcpap.com/

Or you can sell it if it doesn't help you.

If it's an auto-adjusting machine, then you don't need the sleep technician either. You can just start at a lower pressure and look at your data and then see if you need more.

(I am not a doctor, etc.)

If you are a bit adventurous, go on Craigslist and buy a used one with a new mask for like $100. You probably are a Large mask size.

Figure out how to adjust it and try it for a few days. Keep a written record of how you feel. See if it helps. Starting at 6 of whatever the unit is will probably be a good starting point.

I did this - after finding out what a sleep study and a new machine would cost, I just picked up a set from Craigslist, and the difference is like night and day. Described the symptoms to a psychologist and was basically told that yeah, it’s sleep apnea, but they can’t write the prescription until the study is done.

The only annoying bit is replacing the masks and headgear - they’re considered prescription medical devices, so you have to exploit a loophole in that they are only covered under the RX requirement when purchased as a set. So, I have to buy a mask on one order, and the headgear on another.

It’s a pain in the ass and I’m more than a little bit peeved that I have to beg for permission for this quality of life improvement.

Huh? I went several years where my insurance didn't properly cover masks / headgear / tubes etc, and I just purchased them off Amazon without any difficulty.

You also had a prescription for those right? That's what I was referring to. If you get ahold of a machine without a doctor's permission slip, buying supplies is a bit more challenging.

Amazon won't sell you full mask sets, you have to buy the frame/cushion/headgear/tubing separately and put it together yourself. Usully at a very inflated markup.. recently had to pay $100 for a replacement frame after one of the headgear hooks snapped off of my F10.

Other CPAP companies online won't even talk to you without a prescription on file.

You can die from this (apnea) if you are not careful. Getting a cpap properly set and a mask that works for you will be a life changing event in terms of quality of sleep and your general well being. How much is that worth to you?

> All of this is why my first step right now is to keep losing weight

Weight gain is a symptom of untreated sleep apnea, so you should consider whether you're doing this in the right order.

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