I understand sleep apnea can be a fatal disease. What is the danger of a patient skipping a night or two without using his or her CPAP, like say, for a camping trip where there’s no electricity? Since there are differing levels of severity of sleep apnea, I suppose whatever danger there is from it likely increases with the severity.
I’ve had no luck with Google finding the answer to this question.
Sounds like a question for a Dr.
If the person is car camping they could bring along one of the new quiet generators and use that for power. Obviously that won’t work for backpacking.
I have a CPAP and will occasionally skip a night for one reason or another with no apparent ill effects. I’m not sure how “severe” my apnea is considered; I was diagnosed several years ago but don’t know how long I’d had it before that.
Depends on the severity of the sleep apnea, as seen on polysomnograms (sleep studies).
Those with lots of really prolonged apneic incidents will be at higher risk by going without than those with a few less prolonged incidents.
I don’t know that anyone’s really quantified the risk in a meaningful way for occasional nights off, though.
Severe sleep apnea would have a Respiratory Disturbance index of > 30, Mild would be between 5 and 15, and moderate 15 to 30, of course.
RDI is the number of sleep disturbances/hour which both last longer than 10 seconds and also cause a fall in blood oxygenation.
Higher risk of what, exactly?
Well, all the people who are on CPAPs managed to live their entire lives until they started the CPAP.
QtM, feel free to correct me, but sleep apnea as a direct cause of death has to be extremely rare. The people who might be at risk are the morbidly obese or those who have physical obstructions to breathing and would be among the populations least likely to go camping. More realistic would be a week-long power outage, like after a natural disaster.
I know that risks of other fatal problems like strokes do increase with severe apnea, but even that risk is highly unlikely for any specific period with or without CPAP. Here’s a cite of a study.
QtM may be too conservative to say it, so I will and he can chastise me. If you die during a few nights respite from a CPAP, you were going to die then anyway with the CPAP. It’s no cure-all.
Based merely on anecdotes from friends who use one, but have left it behind when going to a convention, etc.: They didn’t see it as dangerous, just annoying – without it, they get less restful sleep and get tired after a few days.
I have a CPAP & a BiPAP, and I just can’t get restful sleep WITH either one. I’ll take my risks.
Completely anecdotal, but I managed to go 38 years without a CPAP, and my apnea is diagnosed as fairly severe (apnea episode about every 70 seconds, and blood oxygen getting into the 85% range).
I’d be interested to know if there are people who die directly from apnea, or only from apnea related cardiovascular reasons.
I am also not a doctor, so this is just my opinion based on my own diagnosis a few years ago. I’m 42 and have been on CPAP for 3 years. I’m certain the apnea existed for many years prior to my being diagnosed. (If my wife didn’t push me to go see a doctor I’d still be undiagnosed.) So, what I’m getting at is that I believe the dangers of sleep apnea are more long-term damage to your system, rather than immediate damage. A CPAP mask is not like a pacemaker or a dialysis machine. I take mine with me when I travel, but I personally wouldn’t be overly concerned by a few days without it. (BTW, my apnea is on the mild side, so of course, YMMV.)
Significantly elevated blood pressure, mostly. Also lack of restful sleep, but that’s not so critical.
Not critical for direct medical danger, maybe, but over time it can be an indirect danger. I was in two car accidents caused by dozing off at the wheel before I finally had a sleep study done and got my CPAP. I know, even now, that if I go two nights without using the machine I’ll be much less alert, which shows up in both my driving and my work.
I’m the only driver in my household. I know that if I went camping without my CPAP for a long weekend, I’d be unfit to drive back home from the campsite (which, in our case, would be about 100 miles). We’ve actually talked about this because we do have friends who go camping at certain campgrounds and we’ve been invited, but haven’t accepted the invitations yet because of my apnea.