Blue water sailing with sleep apnea?

[JPA Cate]

In my case, the GP referred me to the sleep people.

Ann

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

In my case, the GP referred me to the sleep people.

Ann

Thanks Ann
...Were these sleep people doctors, or some type of physiotherapist?

Just trying to figure out what I should ask for here in the Philippines.

'Sleep people' might get me directions to the nearest girlie bar [emoji4]

[Hardhead]

I believe Ear, Nose & Throat would do it, but if you can't find one, any general practitioner should be able to make a referral to you. If you have sleep apnea, the treatment should help you to feel much better rested in the morning. The issue seems very common actually - it was never really treated or diagnosed in prior generations. It's good to get checked, if you think you may have it.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by john61ct

DC versions of KillaWatt all over, cheap

coulometer, Ah Wh counter meter

At random
https://www.amazon.com/gp/aw/d/B07PKHPC1T

I used to use a similar product on my cave diving scooter to see how much battery I used. I’d rather not run out in a cave

It required you to cut the power wires and wire the instrument in. The scooter had Deans connectors so I could install it like an extension cord, between the Deans connectors and not cut into wiring, the CPAP would require you to cut the power cable, and on mine, there are two huge chokes, I don’t know if possibly a device like this may put noise on the power supply, and believe it or not but CPAP’s are very sophisticated devices, my APAP has a feed back loop where it monitors Apnea events and can change pressure on the fly so to speak, I’d be leery of cutting into the power supply myself.

But what does it matter? If it’s 1 AH or 10 AH, the total used between solar output is all that matters, in my case that’s about 130 AH total.
It’s not like you can decide I’m not going to use the CPAP tonight li,e you can the TV.

That headache you get in the morning when you wake up is bad, very, very bad, it’s causing brain damage, and of course if you have a CPAP you know the link to heart disease.
I wear mine every single night, so does the Wife, you get used to it. Every year I had to prove compliance by downloading the chip and printing a report to give to my flight doc and him to send that to the FAA to renew my medical.

For those with a CPAP they has a chip. This software is outstanding, it will tell you mask leaks, and exactly how your sleeping etc.
It’s also a story of how a great piece of freeware pretty much got shut down by hackers, but download it, it’s free and works better than anything else.
https://sleepyhead.jedimark.net

It’s your health, you need to do some research, download the software and learn how to program your own machine, as the seasons change so can your pressure needs etc. You need to be able to determine how effective your treatment is, especially if your a cruiser, this software allows you to do that.

This video is worth watching
https://youtu.be/KYKch66c5nM

[john61ct]

In planning a system from scratch, nothing beats actually **knowing** what **those specific** appliances will draw, rather than guessing.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by john61ct

In planning a system from scratch, nothing beats actually **knowing** what **those specific** appliances will draw, rather than guessing.

Of course, problem it’s highly variable, if the machine detects Apnea it may turn the pressure up. And up goes electric draw.
Sleeping good tonight, with deep breathing, thats a lot of current draw.
Sleeping on your side and your mask is leaking because your pillow is pushing on it, your current draw goes way up, because the machine is a Constant Positive Airway Pressure device, it will run harder to maintain a constant, steady pressure, the leak may double consumption, or it may not depending on how bad the leak is.

So what you want isn’t possible, it’s a changing number.

On edit it’s a variable number, but I believe that the power draw is most likely around 2 to 3 amps.
The max mine can draw, which is an open hose so the fan is running wide open trying to achieve a pressure it can’t, is 4 amps.
If so then figure about 25 AH per machine, per night, roughly.

[Adelie]

The wife and I are both on CPAPs. For car camping we got a 110a-hr deepcyle and 100w suitcase solar panel. A small 200w inverter will run both us with water in the reservoir but heater off. I don’t really know if we can go multiple nights without recharging.

I have a killawatt and may try it tonight.

[jmorrison146]

Originally Posted by Hardhead

I believe Ear, Nose & Throat would do it, but if you can't find one, any general practitioner should be able to make a referral to you. If you have sleep apnea, the treatment should help you to feel much better rested in the morning. The issue seems very common actually - it was never really treated or diagnosed in prior generations. It's good to get checked, if you think you may have it.

Sleep Medicine is part of a Neurology Department, not Ear /Nose/Throat.

[JPA Cate]

@jmorrison146,

Thank you for sharing with us. Imho, it is very generous to have shared your pain at the loss of your loved one from sleep apnea, and for the information offered above.

Ann

[GILow]

My Respironics uses a tad under 4AH@12volts overnight. It is on the lowest pressure setting and does not have a humidifier which probably reduces the power consumption a bit. I’ve never felt the need for a humidifier.

I do not have sleep apnoea (I’ve done the proper tests) however I have always snored and discovered these things are great for stopping snoring.

As for the person who said you cannot use one on a passage... well, frankly, what a load of uninformed twaddle. I always use mine when under way. The rhythm gets me back to sleep in seconds after waking for a horizon scan.

The modern “masks” are super light weight and comfortable and would stay attached if you were doing gymnastics.

Edit: just a note, try to avoid using the power bricks with an inverter if you can go direct. The bricks usually have a large-ish capacitor in them to help with startup current demands, avoiding the need for an overly large and expensive transformer. This uses a bit of extra power to keep charged up and is not needed if you are able to run direct from the house battery bank. And then there’s the power loss to the inverter too.

[donradcliffe]

My wife's Resmed was used on the boat for over 5 years. It drew 2 amps at 12v through a small inverter. While car camping we use an extra car battery. A 100 watt solar panel more than keeps up with the cpap and the cell phones.

[Pelagic]

Aa a child. I can never remember sleeping 8 hrs straight.

From about the age of 18, when I worked graveyard factory shifts and went to university during the day, I learned to catnap

Then at sea for years doing 4 on 4 off, I have never slept more than 4 hrs at any one time.

Even now, when retired, I seem conditioned to catnap thru the night. Reading until feeling sleepy again. then sleep only 2 or 3 hours, and repeat.

I am pretty sure I've got obstructive sleep apnea, need to test for the "central' type or the more complex combination type.

But Just wondering, ...... Are your conditioned sleep habits part of the problem?

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Adelie

The wife and I are both on CPAPs. For car camping we got a 110a-hr deepcyle and 100w suitcase solar panel. A small 200w inverter will run both us with water in the reservoir but heater off. I don’t really know if we can go multiple nights without recharging.

I have a killawatt and may try it tonight.

After posting that 4 Amp draw I realized that was with the humidifier on, and in max, with cold water, so the heater was on of course.
Removing the humidifier dropped amp draw to 2.2 amps, with the hose unplugged, which of course means fan is running at its highest speed and at it’s highest amp draw.
I’d expect amp draw when sleeping to be 1 or 1.5 amp ish?
And not to be sexist, but I’d expect a Woman’s amp draw to be less as they breathe less air.
That is why they can stay down so much longer than a man Scuba diving.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Pelagic

But Just wondering, ...... Are your conditioned sleep habits part of the problem?

I have no idea. The people who test will though. You go there to sleep one night, they wire you for sound, literally, I mean a dozen electrodes it seems.
I know they put you on a CPAP. But don’t know if that is after then confirm APNEA or not, I don’t remember.
For me, I hadn’t dreamed for well I can’t remember how long, and I needed massive amounts of caffeine to get through the day, and if I was flying cross country I’d cat nap when flying, just nod off for short intervals, couldn’t help it. I’m talking just a couple of minutes.
Just figured I was old or stressed or whatever, all of which was true.
But for me what was amazing was once I started on the CPAP, I began dreaming again, and as silly as this sounds you miss dreaming. It became my dream machine. That tapered off of course as everything does.

My Wife argues with me, said she didn’t have it, but I thought she did.
Now I wasn’t trying to self diagnose so don’t get onto me, but it seemed of me that the really bad thing about Apnea was you stopped breathing, and this causes brain damage and apparently also plays hell with your heart, I believe that some enzyme may be released that is bad for heart muscle?
Anyway it seemed to me that if you stopped breathing, your blood oxygen saturation level would crash, has to right? So I got an inexpensive recording pulse oximeter and put it on her one night and the next day showed her how her oxygen saturation was indeed dropping quite a lot several times at night.
Now I assume there may be other things that could cause her O2 level to drop, but it got her to accept being tested.

You can get one for as little as $20, you can of course pay a lot more too.
https://www.amazon.com/s?k=recording...b_sb_ss_i_1_16

[thinwater]

My wife uses a CPAP when cruising. No big deal. Because of the cabin layout, we made an extension for the hose and hang it along the wall.