[tomcam]

> my wife tells me I snore and randomly stop breathing

This is bad for her and worse for you. You have an apnea for sure. You’re losing brain cells unnecessarily. Luckily I know your posting history and you can obviously afford them. I can’t! But for your wife’s sake get a home sleep study.

[tptacek]

I probably will sometime in 2019 (for totally unrelated reasons having to do with insomniaphobia, I have a pretty odd sleeping arrangement that involves me sleeping mostly upright these days which I'm told has mitigated this problem).

I'm just saying: if I could just buy the damned APAP and try it out, I would do that first. Friends who've gotten sleep studies have uniformly described it as simply a hurdle to getting the actual RX for the machine, and that all the learning and diagnostics happened after they started with the machine.

[auntienomen]

You can just buy the damned APAP. The gear I use can be had off Amazon for about $700. A Respironics Dreamstation, and a Resmed Swift FX nasal pillow with headgear and quick connect hose. Probably cheaper if insurance covers it, but you don't actually need it.

If you think you can breathe through your nose with your mouth closed, the nasal pillows are nicer. If not, get a mask. They're nice to have anyways, if colds clog your nose.

[danielparks]

Weirdly, the nasal pillows don't work for me — my AHI is higher when I use them instead of my nose mask.

Fortunately, the masks/pillows aren't super expensive, so folks can experiment.

[BurningFrog]

You can buy used CPAP/APAP machines from Craigslist or wherever used things are sold. Or so I'm told.

You should do it so your wife can sleep at night instead of hearing your snoring, even if you don't care about being healthy yourself. Sheesh...

There are many, many stubborn guys who refuse to try CPAP machines for years and years, and regret their lost years enormously afterwords. When you get to your sleep doctor, he can tell you what an archetype you are.

[Tomte]

> involves me sleeping mostly upright these days

Wait, what? How does that even work? That sounds fascinating.

Also, are you Minbari?

[chrisdhoover]

Buy a machine from ebay