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Tired Contractor Here’s My Simple, CHEAP Sleep Apnea Solution
YouTube ^ | Oct 4, 2022 | Essential Craftsman

Posted on 11/02/2022 3:33:18 PM PDT by UnwashedPeasant

(11:52 video) The youtuber know as "Essential Craftsman" was chronically exhausted and taking several naps per day. He also snored. Then he was diagnosed as having both central apnea and obstructive apnea, causing him to wake up 32 times per hour. He had very little REM sleep and experienced night terrors (waking in a panic). He spent years and $ thousands on treatment, including CPAP and BiPAP. He finally found success with a DIY treatment using sports tape (kinesiology tape) to tape his mouth shut at night. He cut small slits in the tape to allow a small amount of air exchange by mouth, but generally forcing him to breath through his nose. He used an apple watch to monitor heart rate, oxygen saturation and sleep stages. He now uses only the tape and does not use the CPAP/BiPAP. He reports great success.


TOPICS: Health/Medicine
KEYWORDS: apnea; sleepapnea
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Worth a try. Here is the tape he uses:

https://www.amazon.com/dp/B073V7Q6DT

If you snore, if you are exhausted, if you take lots of naps, you might have sleep apnea.

1 posted on 11/02/2022 3:33:18 PM PDT by UnwashedPeasant
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To: UnwashedPeasant

Thanks for the tip. I’ll have to try it. Hubby’s snoring drives me crazy. Just hope I remember to put the slit in the tape, lol. 😮


2 posted on 11/02/2022 3:39:23 PM PDT by Prince of Space (Let’s Go, Brandon! )
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To: UnwashedPeasant

Good video.


3 posted on 11/02/2022 3:47:53 PM PDT by ConservativeMind (Trump: Befuddling Democrats, Republicans, and the Media for the benefit of the US and all mankind.)
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To: UnwashedPeasant
Sleep Apnea will kill you. You feel like shit all the time and wake up with headaches.

Get used to a CPAP and quit whining.

4 posted on 11/02/2022 3:50:45 PM PDT by ImJustAnotherOkie (Let's go Brandon)
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To: UnwashedPeasant

Tried many times getting used to that CPAP but have the same problem each time: VERY DRY MOUTH and mucous membranes (sinuses) for the entire next 24 hours. Drinking water does not remedy that condition right away.
I’ll be consulting my sleep Doc on other face masks to wear at bedtime.

The tape method shown here is interesting, if you can get used to sleeping with one’s mouth covered, and the feeling of tape on the sides of the face.
Not for me right now, but never say never.
I have allergies/sensitive skin, so I would look for a tape with the kind of glue that would not make my face itch.


5 posted on 11/02/2022 3:52:19 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: Prince of Space

You could hear my father snoring from his bedroom out to the living room. My mother never complained about it. Perhaps three tours-of-duty during two wars makes snoring something to be missed. That and when the snoring is gone forever.


6 posted on 11/02/2022 3:56:11 PM PDT by skr (Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. - Proverbs 14:34)
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To: UnwashedPeasant

My late Father had sleep apnea.
We had trouble with the cpap, in his last years.
I got him put on O2, with a nasal cannula.
He would sleep through the night, never stop breathing and O2 sat never dropped below 95%.


7 posted on 11/02/2022 3:58:04 PM PDT by Eagles6 (Welcome to the Matrix . Orwell's "1984" was a warning, not an instruction manual.)
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To: lee martell

my cpap have a water humidifier chamber, so no dry mouth for me, it is a pain to fill it with distilled water every 2 days however.


8 posted on 11/02/2022 3:59:45 PM PDT by VAFreedom (Wuhan Pneumonia-Made by CCP, Copyright Xi Jingping)
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To: UnwashedPeasant

I’ve been thinking about this lately.

Until the last few years, I slept with my mouth closed.

Now, apparently I snore like a kodiak bear


9 posted on 11/02/2022 4:00:29 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: VAFreedom

Mine also has a humidifier. Still same result.
I will keep looking into it.


10 posted on 11/02/2022 4:03:37 PM PDT by lee martell
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To: lee martell

do you use a full face mask? one that covers both your nose and mouth?? if you don’t, i would try that first. i use a respironics dreamwear gel full face.


11 posted on 11/02/2022 4:10:09 PM PDT by VAFreedom (Wuhan Pneumonia-Made by CCP, Copyright Xi Jingping)
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To: skr

Hubby’s snoring is legendary. At first (30 years ago), it was just “snoring”. Add weight gain and age and it is beyond the beyonds. So many stories. Favorite is when we stayed at my in-law’s (now deceased) brand new townhome. Hubby and I were 2nd floor front bedroom. They were lower level back bedroom. Mother in law next morning was so distressed that their brand new furnace was making a terrible racket. “Oh..it’s his snoring”, says I about hubby. Took a few minutes to convince her…but that’s the noise she was hearing. Another is when hubby had to share a lodge room when he chaperoned an outdoor camp. His bunkmate was a PA used to sleeping offhours at a noisy city hospital. Hubby woke up to bunkmate with the entire bed mattress over his head trying to block out snoring noise.


12 posted on 11/02/2022 4:11:19 PM PDT by ZinGirl (Now a grandma ....can't afford a tagline :))
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To: Prince of Space

He may choke and die with this method. I tried something similar and nearly died. Keep in mind what this guy said at first...your brain isn’t telling you to breath. So how does cutting off your mouth supply of air really help if you are not a natural nose breather. If he’s a mouth breather by day, I would stay far away from this.


13 posted on 11/02/2022 4:17:14 PM PDT by for-q-clinton (Cancel Culture IS fascism...Let's start calling it that!)
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To: lee martell

You could try a chin strap. I sometimes use a HALO Chin Strap for CPAP Users. Adjustable and reasonably comfortable.

$22 on Amazon. The makers also have their own web site, https://www.breathewear.com/default.asp


14 posted on 11/02/2022 4:22:16 PM PDT by jimtorr
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To: UnwashedPeasant

I’m going to try this.


15 posted on 11/02/2022 4:24:11 PM PDT by rmccullo
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To: ImJustAnotherOkie

I wake up with headaches from grinding my teeth but, the snoring thing has to be solved.

I don’t know why I breathe with my mouth open now.

I had always slept with my mouth closed because I was scared a spider would fall into it.


16 posted on 11/02/2022 4:28:17 PM PDT by Vendome (I've Gotta Be Me https://youtu.be/wH-pk2vZG2M)
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To: UnwashedPeasant
The video has a lot of comments. For balance, here is one of the top comments, and it has an opposing perspective.
"As a registered respiratory therapist and registered sleep tech (20+years), what you have created for yourself is a device that creates back pressure that in turn helps splint your airway open. There is a similar device, a nasal version that does the same trick. I would caution you because in the case of regurgitation or vomiting, you run the risk of aspiration, and that leads to fun things like pneumonia. I'm really perplexed as to why you sleep doc didn't order a PAP titration study to find a correct pressure for you, as well as see if CPAP or BPAP mode was more efficacious. Also, there are wonderful units, AUTOPAP, that adjust each breath to help you, and not "overinflate" you or cause you to fight the pressure ....which looks like central sleep apnea, but isn't. Also, I am VERY surprised that you were not given a full face mask, since you are a mouth breather, or at least offered a chin strap. It's really quite awful that you've had to resort to a piece of tape across your mouth. Please do not destroy your machine. As you age, your apnea can and will get more severe (from what you said, you are already in the severe range), and the tape method will not give you the relief and support you need. At that point, I would strongly urge you to explore the options that I have shared with you. Good luck."
I still think the tape method is worth a try. If you think you may be vomiting at night, then the comment above suggests using caution with the tape method or finding the nasal version.
17 posted on 11/02/2022 4:29:52 PM PDT by UnwashedPeasant (The pandemic we suffer from is not COVID. It is Marxist Democrat Leftism.)
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To: UnwashedPeasant

Take vitamin B1.


18 posted on 11/02/2022 4:30:11 PM PDT by Disambiguator
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To: Vendome

Spiders crawl into your nose if the mouth is closed anyway. Happens at least twice a week.


19 posted on 11/02/2022 4:30:54 PM PDT by Fuzz
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To: UnwashedPeasant

So you tape your mouth shut, and what happens if your nose gets stuffy while you are sleeping? Do you just die?

Taping your mouth or someone else’s mouth shut is stupid, dangerous, and in the case of doing it to someone else likely illegal.


20 posted on 11/02/2022 4:31:14 PM PDT by Nik Naym (It's not my fault... I have compulsive smart-ass disorder. )
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