Medhead's experience mirror my own. My staff used to find me in my office asleep sitting up, pen in hand writing up cases, having stopped in mid-sentence.
Then one fine afternoon, I('m sure I only) blinked at a traffic light and all the cars in front of me suddenly disappeared :shock:. I could not believe how quickly you could fall asleep, window open, radio on a rock station at high volume, etc.
I booked in for a sleep study the next day, terrified at what the consequences could have been if I'd been on a freeway at speed with the whole family in the car. After diagnosis, I went back for the repeat sleep study, this time with a CPAP machine: I still remember the panic I felt as the machine "inflated" me; I thought this is never going to work. "A few seconds later"
, the nurses were waking me at 6.00am because the study was over. I couldn't believe how refreshed I was even on day 1. I've had two RESMED machines since then, an S7 till the motor burned out and now and S9 elite. Both are 100-240v. I used one mask for 10 years and recently have got a new soft mask which is ultra-comfortable. Blood pressure dropped 15 points within a week of starting to use it.
It's the
first thing I pack when I'm going away. I usually don't bother with the (removeable) humidifier if I'm on a trip so it's quite compact (think a large punnet of strawberries in size). I don't put it in my hand luggage, so am investigating other devices such as a "snoremender" as a cheap one-night stand option for a trans-Pacific flight.
A good friend of mine got a CPAP machine but returned it because his wife said he looked "grotesque". I suggested not putting it on till
after they'd made love (that comment went down like a lead balloon!). He's currently on lord-knows-how-many medications for blood pressure and fatigue and they sleep in separate rooms because of the noise he generates (in which case the grotesqueness wouldn't be an issue, you'd think).
As medhead suggests, get a sleep study done and go from there. Your very life may depend on it.
