Anyone here suffer from sleep apnea and uses CPAP in the bush?


Background:
I suffers from Sleep Apnea - a type of sleeping disorder that is very common to overweight person, almost 25% of population suffers this problem yet only about 50% or less are getting it treated. Basically, Sleep apnea is an interruption in breathing during sleep due to blockage in airway, the blockage can last for 10 - 20 seconds and 100 times in an hour. While a person with sleep apnea cannot suffocate – the brain will wake the person up enough to tighten the muscles at the back of the throat to allow airflow. This resulted in snoring or snorting loudly. Due to the repeated sleep interruption, the sufferers gains no rest in the sleep.
A CPAP (constant Positive Air Pressure) machine would keep air flowing and would then give relief and provide good night sleep.

If you do not suffer APNEA or use CPAP, then thats all you need to read, otherwise below is my solution.


Anyhow, because of the problem, I carry my CPAP machine with me to the bush.
I use Respironics M series with a 12V 9600mAh LI-Ion battery purchased from fleabay.
In winter, I place machine inside the sleeping bag with me so I can breath warm air, but suffers when I farted.. ops:
In other seasons, I made a small bag hook at the end of my hammock to hang the machine.
Total weight of my setup is about 2kg, and the size of a shoe box and the battery would operate for only 3 days, which is a shame because the space can be used to carry more food or gear to say longer in the bush.
But such is life.

That's a pretty drastic action Gelan, but I have seen the results of Sleep Apnea and unfortunately CPAP is the best treatment. At least it will keep your oxygen levels up around 92% which will allow you a rested sleep and a good days hunting the next day.

Do you sleep in a base camp mate? If so, give some thought to a good quality deep cycle or gel battery and keep it charged with a couple of solar panels. You can connect an inverter and convert the battery power to 240V if need be.

If I am car camping, I could hook up to the car's dual battery, I only need about 2.5 ampere hour for the whole night.

With my Lithium battery, I can last about 3 nights hiking in the bush.
I have two of these so I can go for 6 days.

One thing for sure tho, I now sleep REALLY quiet, no snoring..

I bet SWMBO loves the good sleeping too!!! it is very hard on the nerves listening for your mate to take the next breath.
good on you for getting it sorted.

Radiation, chemo therapy and loosing 23kg will fix it.
It fixed mine.
I had sleep apnea until I got treatment for throat cancer, loosing the weight and permanently having the fat cells around my throat killed off seems to have fixed it.
I DONT recommend the method, but the only way to beat this mate is generally to loose weight.
Not in all cases as a work mate and I were tested the same night, he used to disappear when he turned sideways, you could find him by the noise he made.
The cpap was a pain on occasion, more than once I woke up to find it across the room, but the difference in sleep was enormous.
Before treatment I would tough it out for the 2 to 4 nights I was camping.
The setup you have sounds ideal for your purposes, wish they had that battery technology 8 years ago when I started using a cpap.

I make a snore appliance where I work. It's plastic and holds your jaw forward and your mouth open. Some people swear by them and if they break it they want me to fix it the same day so they can sleep again. In order for them to get the appliance they have to go through a sleep study and rule out the use of CPAP. It's not for everybody but I can see how it would be more convient for some. There's all kinds of them, you can do a google search for images of them. The one I make is propriatary to our office, but is similar to ones you'll see that have a screw on each side of the appliance.

Pete, I hope I do not have to go through as drastic a solution.

Suz, the problem I have is actually in the throat rather than the nose.
So nose dilating device solution wont work on me.

I also have a pair of teeth hook custom made before I get to CPAP, the device lift my lower jaw up when I sleep, thus "help" expanding the flattened air pipe.
Nope, doesnt work either.
So right now its CPAP or nothing.

My wife has to have her cpap to sleep. She cant sleep without it. Dr told her its a neurological disorder that the muscles in the airway relax too much during sleep, closing the airway. She cannot sleep any without her machine. Puts a damper on our "roughing it" camping.

There are new CPAP machines that are quite small, the Transcend II is the size of a large coffee cup, and can be used with battery.
I am thinking of getting one soon.

I've been using my CPAP machine for around 9 years.
When I had the overnight sleep test, they found that I stopped breathing 30 times in a 15 min. period, along with my legs twitching all of the time.
After I got the machine, I felt much better getting a good nights sleep.
I guess that every time that you stop breathing you wake up, thus the reason folks with sleep apnea are always tired unless they use the machine.
Having sleep apnea will also cause strokes and heart attacks.
I was lectured big time last fall while in the hospital with A-Fib.
Sleep Apnea is nothing to play around with, and the CPAP saves lives. Football great Reggie White would be alive today if he used his CPAP Machine.
My new machine is called a CFLEX and there is no pressure while breathing out, which makes it much more comfortable.

Eric

Lol I also have CFLEX on my machine.. I can't stand it!
some how either it leads my breathing or too slow, end up not sleeping.
Now I'm in pure CPAP setting, it also saves the battery.

Gelan, I have what I guess you could call sleep apnea. I've had several spinal surgery's , and have some nerve damage in the spine. Thats what happens when you lose a fight with 3000 pounds of steel falling from a crane. If I lay flat breathing is hard, and I can not get deep breaths at all. The doctors have run test after test, MRIs Xrays, catscans, EKGs and more. you name it, they did it. But one thing I discovered on my own fixed the problem. Temporarily, but it works.
I first discovered one night when my back was really bothering me and I had to lay down, but couldn't breath when I did. So out of desperation I grabbed the closest thing to me at the time, my 1959 browning hi-power 9mm and placed it under my back. After moving it around under my spine I discovered a spot a little under halfway down my spine where if I placed it there, I could breath normally. Oh it hurt like hell, but I could breath.
Since then I moved to an semi soft bocce ball made of leather came from an old travel bocce ball set. Doesn't hurt as much and if I put a hardcover book under it it pushes up on my spine well enough to let me sleep flat an breath. At least until I roll over in my sleep, but that's always been a painful experience since the accident that destroyed my spine anyway.
showing this to my doctor we've come to the conclusion that it appears that around T 7 to T11 of the spine. The nerves in those areas effect the diaphragm, the intercostal muscles, and the abdominal muscles, all needed for breathing.
So lucky me, since my spine has been solidly fused from S1 to L1, so that transfers the load bearing section of my spine to the T level vertebrae, which are not made to carry the loads. Thats caused a lot of stress cracking of the vertebrae in that area, and along with Spinal stenosis, which causes the shrinking of the hollow area of the spine where the nerves are housed, its just one bundle of joy right after another for me.
But the point is, if you maybe have lower back problems, you try lying on the floor and place a tennis ball under your spine. Just keep moving it round at different areas along the spine to see if you have any improvements. I was able to breath almost immediately when I found my sweet spot on my spine. Now, its the only way I can sleep. Well, if you call it sleep. I get between 15 minutes and an hour a sleep at a time before a sudden sharp pain wakes me up. Then it might take 30 minutes or more to go back to sleep, or I might not get back to sleep at all. I really dont have a lot of control over that. Sleeping pills and pain medication doesnt help much in the case of sleeping either. Oh it makes me want to sleep, but my spine can be a soulless bitch if it wasnt too. It and my Ex wife have that in common.

dan1dad, I am glad that you found a great solution to your problem.
I wish mine is as easy.

gelandangan wrote:

dan1dad, I am glad that you found a great solution to your problem. I wish mine is as easy.

Mines not really a solution, or easy. it just a way to make it a little easier. I still don't get much sleep.
what I was getting at I guess is sometimes you cant rely on the so called experts , and just need to try to find help yourself. Doesn't always work or cure it, but sometimes it can help a little.

But I wish you the best in finding help.

sounds like sewing marbles in the back of your pajamas to stop you sleeping on your back and snoring!!!