Can I just get a sleep apnea machine and try it for, let's say, a week? Is it dangerous?
If you want to do it yourself without going through insurance you could check out Wesper. You can also buy a Wellue O2Ring off Amazon and see if your oxygen saturation ever drops overnight, which is a large part of what Wesper does.
Do you have information on what kinds of drops are bad vs normal? Or what should be watched out for?
So, it seems to me your best bet is to do the study because they’d find (or rule out) non-apnea causes, as well, but I understand the cost concern.
The lowest settings you barely even notice the pressure so I don’t think you would be mortal danger compared to not using it all at that level.
The problem is finding the correct pressure level because going too high can cause central sleep apnea events due to co2 washout.
That’s why titration is done under the guidance of a medical professional for liability reasons.
I wouldn’t buy a used machine online because you don’t know what kind of gunk, smoker residue or bacteria build up the prior owner had. If they kept up with the cleaning and filter schedule etc.
Most advanced Cpap users who have a prescription use the SD card and look at all the logs and data in a program called Oscar it’s open source I think.
I used that data to fine tune to reduce my central sleep apnea events reduce my apnea, hyponea and rera events.
(Personally I first figured out my OSA with the help of an O2Ring oxygen monitor. But those are also about $200 to buy and only one part of a full sleep diagnostic. My life has been greatly improved by using a CPAP.)
Pulse ox devices are pretty simple but the ones they give you for testing are the only ones that have passed the FDA regs.
You can also try a different sleep setup, like try and sleep propped up or add an extra pillow.
The thing is that sometime I realize that, when I'm not sleeping, I hold my breath unconsciously for long period of time. Sometime I have to take a deep breath forcefully.
(not mine - but was an interesting read)
Might be a lie told by the health providers, but I've heard it multiple times.
If you can get a note from a Doctor with a history of sleep issues and trying different things insurance should approve it.
Perhaps you can ask insurance what the criteria are.
I should also add that for most people it takes months to acclimate to even keeping the damn thing on overnight.
Do you wake up with headaches?
source: i have sleep apnea and wear a cpap
I don't know if this a good enough reason to doubt that I have sleep apnea.