Sleep apnea & cpap

If CPAP makes you feel good and drive safer then by all means use it. I use coffee but I sure wouldn't want to be forced to use it because studies showed that I might have less accidents if I did. Neither would I wish to have a DOT reg that would make drivers test on their medical to see if their caffeine levels were up to "normal". I know caffeine makes me a safer driver, but should I force you to drink the stuff when you drive? Of course not.

You CPAP inhaler guys may be missing the point. The test for sleep apnea is an arbitrary one mandated unfairly. There are many things we COULD do that might make us safer drivers. We could stop drinking and smoking. We could do cardio exercise. We could drive only during non-rush hour traffic, only in good weather, and only when we're not tired. Why pick sleep apnea as something to be concerned about when a whole bunch of other things are MORE likely to be dangerous in driving? (The answer is in the long slot of your wallet.)

If you love your CPAP then PLEASE, use it with my blessings. Just give the rest of us the freedom to determine how to best take care of our bodies so as to be safe drivers.

 

If your not a mouth breather, switch to a nasal pillows mask. Only fits in your nostrils. Much more comfortable.

 

Mild sleep apnea is 5-15 Events per hour if you just had enough to fail. Maybe you had 6 Events. That would mean you stopped breathing 6 times per hour at 10 seconds long. So 60 seconds per hour. If you sleep 7 hours your not breathing for 7 minutes per night. Try holding you breath for 7 minutes and see how you feel. That's was just a little joke, but you can see 7 minutes of not breathing or 6 times per hour will stop someone from going into good REM sleep. 6 times per hour your being awaken just to keep breathing or something around that number. If you can sleep with the CPAP if can get your number down to 1 or 3. The normal range for everyone not having sleep apnea is 4 or less. CPAP can even get people with sleep apnea down to less then 1 down to 0.2. they are pretty good machines you you let them do the job