> I accumulated a laundry list of attempts to try and resolve the situation, including lots of sleep hygiene ‘hacks’.
[long list of mumbo-jumbo tik-tok-style “lifehacks”]
Anything but seeing a doctor?
Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source
81–90 of 334 posts
Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source
#82Okay, serious question: The author of this blog post sleeps with his partner, and then discovered he spent 20 seconds of each minute gasping for breath, 40 times per hour. (Something like ~this). How did his wife not notice and tell him? Now I'm paranoid that I have sleep apnea. What's the cheapest wearable or device that can probably tell you if you have apnea?
> What's the cheapest wearable or device that can probably tell you if you have apnea? Years ago I was once concerned I might have had sleep apnea. I did see a doctor, who said I almost certainly didn't have it. I also bought a $40 pulse oximeter that could do logging, and taped it to my finger over a couple nights. I didn't see my oxygen level drop below 90% (or something, I can't remember), so I figured I didn't ha…
Smart Watches often can track sleep and approximate blood oxygen levels.
Does anyone know how accurate Samsung or Apple Watch are?
Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source
#83Curious: can the Apple Watch detect this sort of thing?
Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source
#84Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the flipside, there are also a small selection of unproven treatments that work better than standard care.
... That's not the flipside, that's the "exception to the rule". Of course the system's not perfect, but people don't live way longer now because our medicine is worse than before...
"The exception proves the rule" refers to a logical/legal situation where a rule has been posted with specific exceptions.
A sign that says "no parking on Sundays" logically implies that parking is allowed all other days.
The concept you're looking for is closer to "any statistical group has outlier cases".
Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source
#85I saw an otolaryngology, got a sleep study, was prescribed a cpap with the study recommended pressure, and I am fine. I suppose I could have wandered the tech desert, but this is my health we are talking about. I have other tasks I am better suited to do than wander through a field I had zero training in. I approach my cardiology issues the same way.
The author is in the UK. They noted that they were on a wait-list just to get tested and likely wouldn't be for a year at least so they decided to take it on themselves.
Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source
#86I have a chance of having sleep apnea since my sleep is atrocious and extremely light, but I'm not overweight and I also can't sleep on my back or side, meaning a machine with mask ain't gonna cut it. Thus I've not even bothered. Also I wouldn't fall asleep in a sleep study location (I can't sleep outside of my bed, with any noise, lights, etc)
This is similar to my situation. I am a fit individual that is in the gym five days a week, runs marathons, backcountry skis multiple times a week, etc. and have diagnosed sleep apnea. However, I can't for the life of me get through a single night with the machine to the point where it has sat in a closet for months. I also sleep on my side or stomach so I immediately wake up to the mask blasting air at me due to a s…
Have you tried a mandibular adjustment device? You can get them pretty cheap online. They push your lower jaw forward. The only real downside is that they can screw with your teeth a little.
Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source
#87> The morale of the story, you need to sometimes tackle your own health and take matters into your own hands The frustrating thing for me is that doing so is often labeled as being anti-science, when the truth is, this guy was actually doing the science himself. It's not anti-science to take your health into your own hands. It's anti-outdated-underfunded-medical-systems.
This isn't science, it's medicine. Many parts of medical diagnosis are not completely scientific. It's also easy for people managing their own health to make mistakes that professionals would not.
Yes, absolutely. It is worth practicing medicine when the treatment is inherently harmless and going through the medical system has been bottlenecked.
Nobody is killed (or really harmed) by trying a CPAP and the waiting list for sleep clinics can be months or years long, not to mention the expense.
It's one of the rare medical interventions that is relatively safe for an individual. Probably should be otc.
Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source
#88Earlier quoted context omitted.
On the flipside, there are also a small selection of unproven treatments that work better than standard care.
Can you share an example of an unproven treatment that works better than standard care?
Adoption of new methods takes a considerable time in medicine. Some methods may be considered unproven by the majority but are being adopted by pioneers. Now if you could distinguish pioneers from quacks easily…
Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source
#89Sleep apnea is strange. Good news! We have a diagnosis, sleep apnea. You're bad at sleeping now, the thing everybody has to do all night long every day since birth. The solution is to wear a modern iron lung whenever you want or need to sleep forever. Many times it's because people are overweight but you aren't. Is that really all there is for treatment? No throat exercises or therapeutic sleeping positions? No diets…
Diagnosed at 24 with sleep apnea. I tried a bunch of things.
What worked for me was regular cardio exercise and daily doses of high absorption magnesium.
The magnesium is absolutely unproven pseudoscience nonsense that can't possibly work. But if I stop taking it my sleep suffers massively.
Re: Night of the living brain fog dead or how I hacked myself better via open source
#90Okay, serious question: The author of this blog post sleeps with his partner, and then discovered he spent 20 seconds of each minute gasping for breath, 40 times per hour. (Something like ~this). How did his wife not notice and tell him? Now I'm paranoid that I have sleep apnea. What's the cheapest wearable or device that can probably tell you if you have apnea?
How did his wife not notice and tell him? You don't really understand how heavily some folk sleep - and you can sleep through quite a bit. Including snoring.
I can sleep through incoming and outgoing artillery fire, .50 cal machine guns and humvees running over land mines (allegedly, they may have been messing with me), people snoring, all kinds of stuff. Someone talking and I’m wide awake.