DIY Sleep Apnea Fix Update: What We’ve Learned

so a few weeks ago we uploaded a video about the troubles that I've had with sleep apnea and it was shocking to me it was shocking to all of us here at essential Craftsman that a lot of people were interested in learning about what it was that I had learned about sleep apnea and sort of some of the you know some of the troubles that I'd had and some of the solutions that I think I had figured out and so I just wanted to Circle back and tell you that for the last period of time since that video went up reading the comments and I've read every one and there's been thousands of them I've learned more good stuff about how to sort of manage or deal with the sleep apnea issues that I have but the first thing that I learned was that I shouldn't be skeptical about things that come to mind that I don't understand and that I might not have a lot of faith in and what I mean is this we thought why would we even think about putting a video on our Channel about sleep apnea and taping my mouth so that I can suffocate at night thereby getting more oxygen in spite of sleep apnea I mean it's it's silly on the face of it and I was I was unsure enough that in our essential Craftsman Academy I don't know if you know about that but we've got we've got a group of guys like-minded individuals part of our subscription group and we have a shop talk Zoom meeting twice a month and so like two months ago and like shop talk I said hey what do you guys think about and I told them what I had discovered about mouth taping should I put that on the channel they said yes do that because several of those guys had trouble with CPAP and BiPAP and oxygen deprivation and all of that and so I girded up my loins and we did that video and it got more views than any other video we've put up in the first month that's crazy but the really interesting thing and the reason I'm talking to you about this again is the things that I've learned from the comments from you that have helped me more so the first thing that I've learned from this process so far is don't dismiss your crazy ideas get some counsel bounce it off of somebody that might have an objective more sort of a global look at what you're thinking of and see what they say and if you can get two or three people that say yeah try that well then try it and if every single person says no well you might try it anyway but don't be surprised if they were right okay but so that was lesson one huh a crazy idea that that turned out to have been perhaps worthwhile the second thing that I learned was that I was not the first guy to tape his mouth shut in frustration dealing with sleep apnea in fact there's a book breath or breathe breath by James Nester the new science of a lost art and the guy a journalist I think has written a very informative and well documented and reasonably well researched analysis of the thing that we take for granted the most in our life and that is breathing and specifically how our breathing at night has really far-reaching effects in our health both physical and mental and he had to one degree or another identified mouth taping as at least a partial solution so those were the first two things that I learned the next thing that I learned was I didn't have to tape my mouth side to side completely blocking it off like I had been a lot of you are saying I just put a piece vertically so I thought well gotta try that I cut off way less tape than I was using before I stretch it at the end in the same way I clip off the tab I fold it in about a third roughly crease it pretty tight cut it a couple of times open it up peel off the backing to the crease put the crease at the center line of my lips attach the top pull off the backing and glue my mouth shut this has been way better because I can breathe through the corners of my mouth it comes off easier it works great the advantage is I can cough easier it really is no problem at all coughing without you know pushing the pressure out the eustachian tubes and being uncomfortable now let me say before I draw one more breath that there was one thing that I didn't emphasize strongly enough in the previous video and that is I assumed that you all knew I was a carpenter and you wouldn't take my health advice seriously so if any of you are thinking about doing this you've got to talk to your doctor or your sleep therapist or whatever and some of them will tell you that I'm crazy and some of them will tell you yeah try that but if you can't breathe through your nose you know don't don't sign up until you've gotten some professional advice now speaking of breathing through your nose here's the next thing that I learned that one of these Breathe Right strip things in this case a generic knockoff nasal strips are a real money maker if you're going to do this you guys on the channel said hey put a Breathe Right strip or a nasal strip or whatever you call it on your nose and it will expand your nostrils by the way I don't think I have a deviated septum some of you thought my voice sounds like that I don't think so but when you put this on stick it down tight stick it down pretty tight it expands your nostrils and it looks great but don't make the mistake of putting the mouth tape on before you do this because you have to pinch your nostrils off while you're putting this thing on and that gets a little spooky when your mouth breathing is difficult so put this on first and then the mouth tape here's the next thing I learned about this that my oxygen saturation as measured by my Apple watch went from 95 94 95 94 without the nasal strips to 96.97 it went up two points a full two points just by putting these on now however good that looks I've got to take it off so that was you know fairly empirical evidence that this part of the process is a net plus I recommend it here's the next thing I learned vitamin D which I had been taking one of per day appears to have a positive effect now I don't have any evidence for this except I feel better because I'm taking two of these in the morning and two of these at night I tried a massive dose as per a recommendation of a doctor on the internet who appears to know what he's talking about and it kind of upset my stomach I did a little research a little Google research and vitamin D is fairly innocuous you're not likely to poison yourself with vitamin D though you can get diarrhea I learned and so I backed off a little bit but I feel better and so whatever it is that I learned between the release of the first video and now from you the data I'm collecting supports the idea that what I'm doing is helping me and the real data is boy I feel a lot better and I hope that some of you do too one of the questions the recurring questions was what app is it that you're using it's called sleepwatch we'll put a picture up of the icon so when you're going through the App Store you can see one because there's a lot maybe some of the other ones work just as well but this one works exceedingly well with my Apple equipment so one additional thing that I've learned is that there is a wealth of knowledge in this community practical theoretical you know informed educated School of Hard Knocks there is a wealth of information this community so if you have other health hacks other health improving processes that you've added to your life and you have some reason to think some good reason to think that they would be beneficial beneficial to others share them put them in the comments you know if you were to become part of the essential Craftsman Academy you could share them with us in the shop talk but however you do it there is information out there that can benefit all of us and one of the things that I admire about this group is you're not afraid to share it I don't know for sure if what I'm doing is the right thing or not but I know for sure that I feel a lot better maybe some of you will too and maybe some of you will talk to your doctor and he'll tell you it's the last thing you should do but for right now from here on out I intend to use this tape vitamin D and some sort of a nasal strip coupled with my Apple watch and the sleepwatch app to get a lot better rest at night I'm delighted frankly I give thanks often for this change in my circumstance thanks for watching essential Craftsman and keep up the good work [Music]

Channel: Essential Craftsman

Views: 463,860

Keywords: anvil, forge, blacksmith, forging, craftsman, mentor, trades, tradesman, career, smith, carpetner, builder, wisdom, workbench, fabricate, tools, tool, tips, trick, hacks, protip, Sleep Apnea, sleeping problems, insomnia, sleep

Id: g8JzXEoT9LI

Length: 10min 23sec (623 seconds)

Published: Wed Nov 30 2022