Sleep Apnea / Team Driving

The only time you hear your teammate sleeping is when you're stopped with the engine off. When you're rolling, the engine and road noise drowns out quite a bit. That being said, it's hard to sleep when the truck rolls over rough pavement or you get weird bright flashes of lights in the sleeper from oncoming traffic.

 

The two things are totally unrelated, apnea and teaming.

Your machine will be back in the bunk with you, with a curtain between you and the driver.
As CJ mentioned, the truck noise will block most noise from you or the machine.

Living with another person in a small enclosed space with very limited storage space is a much bigger concern.
So is trying to get enough decent sleep while being tossed about.
You think your apnea woke you up too often during the night? Try attempting to sleep in a vehicle that is tossing you up in the air with every road joint.

 

Dude I think you should do the team thing with your trainer, and then roll solo. Not sure most non sleep apnea folks want to sleep behind somebody who has a sleep disorder. Plus as stated it is going to be hard sleeping in a moving truck even without some gadget stuck in your nose. You will need quality sleep when you can get it. The few extra bucks you might make teaming won't be worth your future health issues, and or burning out of wanting to drive a truck for a career.

 

I'm not sure if I understand the question. Do you have sleep apnea? Do you use a cpap? Are you questioning about what it would be like if your partner has apnea?

Regardless of who has sleep apnea, a cpap machine is quiet. It's almost like a whisper. You can't really tell it's on but you can hear the air a tiny bit. At least the machines that I have used. Now if you are talking about someone in the truck that is trying to sleep with apnea untreated, that could be rough. I know that before my apnea was treated with a cpap, I heard that my snoring was off the hook. I remember a motorcycle road trip with some friends and they made me get my own room because of the snoring and hearing me stop breathing all the time. Treated it's not an issue. I used my cpap machine throughout my training and I had 4 trainers. I asked all of them if the machine bothered them at all and they all said that it was quiet and unobtrusive.

Like they said above, the bigger issues are getting used to sleeping in a moving truck and those kinds of things. Treated sleep apnea isn't an issue I think but I don't know if I would want to sleep in the back bunk with someone driving that has untreated sleep apnea since they are pretty worn down from not getting rest.

 

Without question, solo. In 35 years of trucking, I did 1 team operation, and it was the worst experience. I'm a light sleeper, and I was exhausted from driving, switched drivers, passed out for a half an hour, BAM hit a bump, and couldn't fall back asleep. BTW, anybody having trouble sleeping in a truck stop,or where ever( slamming doors, refers running) those soft ear plugs work wonders. They worked for me.

 

My dad had sleep apnea but he had surgery to fix it. Now he sleeps without that machine.

If I have trouble sleeping when the truck is moving then I'll pop a melatonin. Passed out within 5 minutes.

 

I have sleep apnea and use a bpap in my truck, I do not run teams but I had to back when I trained. My trainer was never bothered by my machine even when we both slept at the same time, he would only joke that it was a Darth Vader mask and I sounded like him if I made noises lol.

I chose to remain solo for various reasons but sleep was a big one, I do not do the greatest with a rolling truck on some of the horrible roads we take.

I do not see the apnea/team driving being related though for an issue, you sleep or you dont rather your moving or using a mask.

 

[QUOTE="semi" retired;3970509]Without question, solo. In 35 years of trucking, I did 1 team operation, and it was the worst experience. I'm a light sleeper, and I was exhausted from driving, switched drivers, passed out for a half an hour, BAM hit a bump, and couldn't fall back asleep. BTW, anybody having trouble sleeping in a truck stop,or where ever( slamming doors, refers running) those soft ear plugs work wonders. They worked for me.[/QUOTE]

I have gotten quite used to the noises and sleep right through them, plugs dont work for me or I will miss my alarms, a lot of times I wake without one at the right times but never like to chance it.

 

Hi Wolfyinc, I've known many people that can sleep through a hurricane, but I can't. And that is true about earplugs, they almost work TOO well, and I used to set my phone alarm on vibrate to wake up. In an emergency, ear plugs can be a problem, as you won't hear smoke detectors or sirens. But for me, I had to take that chance, or not sleep at all.