auto-CPAP without sleep study?
I'm going to post a bit about my sleep journey in the hopes that someone can give me more insight 
, but my main question about CPAP is in the last paragraph.
I'm male and in my 30s, not overweight and I'm physically active due to my job. I'm a nose breather and rarely (as far as I know) breathe through my mouth while sleeping. I'm not aware of that I snore, maybe if I sleep on my back but more on that later.
I've been functioning most of my life on 5 hours of sleep a night. In my 20s I could function a lot better even with the 5 hours but now, in my 30s, the short sleep duration is either starting to take a toll on me or my sleep has gotten a lot worse. I don't have trouble falling asleep (that's another story), I have trouble with staying asleep and getting a good nights sleep. The sleep that I get isn't good, I wake up tired but I can never fall back asleep.
OTC sleeping pills never really worked for sleep maintenance/sleep quality when I've tried them and I generally prefer not to take them. When I tried them in the distant past, I took them because I couldn't fall asleep, but they just made me feel more tired and groggy the next day and I still didn't sleep any longer than usual. I'm currently experimenting with time release melatonin but so far no positive results to report either.
Over the last few months I've been changing a lot of variables in my life and my sleep and seeing how it affects it. I don't have a lot of stress or anxiety anymore. I even completely changed my diet to a whole foods diet and I track my calorie intake, weight, vitamins and minerals, making sure I get everything my body could need. I also experimented with when I eat, what I eat and how many hours before bed I eat it. I almost completely avoid sugar and limit coffee to the mornings. At some point in the past I cut out coffee completely but it didn't make a difference back then so I still drink it in the mornings. I also started lifting weights again like I did in my 20s, but not as hard. Taking a nap later in the day does offset the tiredness somewhat but it doesn't feel like a long term solution because sometimes it also makes it a lot harder to fall asleep at night. I've also mostly eliminated my environment from the equation, I sleep with ear plugs and a face mask and experimented with different heating settings in my bedroom.
So at this point I'm starting to wonder if it may be sleep apnea. I always sleep on my side or on my stomach, never on my back and there's a reason for this. I remember in my 20s I tried sleeping on my back here and there and there were times where I was at the point of falling asleep but woke up because I noticed I couldn't breathe. Since then I didn't even attempt to sleep on my back, as I assumed I'm just snoring when I sleep on my back. I didn't think much of it back then but after reading quite a bit about sleep maintenance insomnia and sleep apnea I'm thinking that it may be the issue.
So long story short: I'm thinking about getting a used auto-CPAP for around 200-400 Euros to give it a shot without a sleep study and just sell it again if it doesn't help me. Assuming I buy an Auto-CPAP which OSCAR supports, could one reliably determine if sleep apnea is part of my sleeping problems? I assume the answer is yes, both physically and from the OSCAR reports, but I'd like to know your thoughts on just giving it a shot. Thanks a lot in advance!
, but my main question about CPAP is in the last paragraph.I'm male and in my 30s, not overweight and I'm physically active due to my job. I'm a nose breather and rarely (as far as I know) breathe through my mouth while sleeping. I'm not aware of that I snore, maybe if I sleep on my back but more on that later.
I've been functioning most of my life on 5 hours of sleep a night. In my 20s I could function a lot better even with the 5 hours but now, in my 30s, the short sleep duration is either starting to take a toll on me or my sleep has gotten a lot worse. I don't have trouble falling asleep (that's another story), I have trouble with staying asleep and getting a good nights sleep. The sleep that I get isn't good, I wake up tired but I can never fall back asleep.
OTC sleeping pills never really worked for sleep maintenance/sleep quality when I've tried them and I generally prefer not to take them. When I tried them in the distant past, I took them because I couldn't fall asleep, but they just made me feel more tired and groggy the next day and I still didn't sleep any longer than usual. I'm currently experimenting with time release melatonin but so far no positive results to report either.
Over the last few months I've been changing a lot of variables in my life and my sleep and seeing how it affects it. I don't have a lot of stress or anxiety anymore. I even completely changed my diet to a whole foods diet and I track my calorie intake, weight, vitamins and minerals, making sure I get everything my body could need. I also experimented with when I eat, what I eat and how many hours before bed I eat it. I almost completely avoid sugar and limit coffee to the mornings. At some point in the past I cut out coffee completely but it didn't make a difference back then so I still drink it in the mornings. I also started lifting weights again like I did in my 20s, but not as hard. Taking a nap later in the day does offset the tiredness somewhat but it doesn't feel like a long term solution because sometimes it also makes it a lot harder to fall asleep at night. I've also mostly eliminated my environment from the equation, I sleep with ear plugs and a face mask and experimented with different heating settings in my bedroom.
So at this point I'm starting to wonder if it may be sleep apnea. I always sleep on my side or on my stomach, never on my back and there's a reason for this. I remember in my 20s I tried sleeping on my back here and there and there were times where I was at the point of falling asleep but woke up because I noticed I couldn't breathe. Since then I didn't even attempt to sleep on my back, as I assumed I'm just snoring when I sleep on my back. I didn't think much of it back then but after reading quite a bit about sleep maintenance insomnia and sleep apnea I'm thinking that it may be the issue.
So long story short: I'm thinking about getting a used auto-CPAP for around 200-400 Euros to give it a shot without a sleep study and just sell it again if it doesn't help me. Assuming I buy an Auto-CPAP which OSCAR supports, could one reliably determine if sleep apnea is part of my sleeping problems? I assume the answer is yes, both physically and from the OSCAR reports, but I'd like to know your thoughts on just giving it a shot. Thanks a lot in advance!
