Great project, congrats! I have tried some of the homelab solutions. In some aspects the success of these projects depend on whether you keep testing and updating the docker compose files. Meaning: for years! You need a test environment to test the new versions of the apps as they come out. This can be quite a lot of work that many underestimate.
Also you don't need the best action you can come up with. A good enough action will do (even inaction is an action). Also, if it turns out it wasn't a good action, well, s** happens, that's the upredicatable nature of life, so it will be fine, you will recover from it.
The danger in this article is that less people might be willing to get a proper sleeep study after reading it and having a false sense that CPAP is terrible.
For sleep apnea CPAP WORKS and everything else is a hack.
We need more articles encouraging people to try CPAP instead of: here, take this nose clip on Ali Express it might work; or here put this ointment or use this mouthguard.
If you snore loud or people say your breath stops at night or you feel continuously tired or have headaches in the morning:
- talk to your doctor and demand a sleep study
- try CPAP for several weeks/months and try to get used to it
- once in a while you can test your blood oxygen / heartbeat overnight with a pulsoxymeter that has memory; also this can be helpful for people who can't convince e.g. a family member to do a sleep study
- please don't believe that a nose clip or mouthguard is a full solution; your life quality will suffer greatly
I use a CPAP; I hate it. I can’t wear appliances because of orthodontics, and I am very wary of costs & long recovery times for surgery. However, neither of those two things are ‘a hack’ in any negative sense. They both can offer significant life improvement.
I think sleep studies are over rated and expensive compared to just giving them a CPAP and seeing if symptoms improve. For many, the sleep study takes a long time to schedule, doesn't always work, and as I mentioned terribly expensive.
The CPAP machine that I was prescribed would cost me $700 over three months to _rent_, which I would have to pay in advance, with reimbursement from my insurance plan only after I uploaded weekly compliance data dumps. Or, for an additional $200, the machine could upload those data dumps for me.
That's the real barrier for entry for most - cost.
But how much does a sleep study cost? Specialize doctors, specialized lab, specialized equipment: $700-$3000.
I got a better deal with my work's insurance plan: it would bill me for it if I didn't use it, and auto logged the data for me. That sounds ridiculous. Also my sleep study was just a unit I wore at home in my own bed. Seems cheaper than an in erson sleep study
