Profile For Joe G.

I have been using a cpap for over 20 years and now I won't sleep without it. But it took me several months to get used to it. Part of that is getting the right mask. There are several different types. I personally have found that Resmed makes the best masks even if you have some other brand of cpap machine.

I needed to take sleeping pills for a few months to help me adjust. Since you can't do that if you're a commercial driver, you might consider getting checked for sleep apnea before you start your driving career.

If you area commercial driver and get a cpap machine you won't be able to use sleeping pills. An alternative approach to sleeping pills, which sleep doctors say works better anyway, is CBT for Insomnia. CBT stands for Cognitive Behavioral Therapy. You can google this and get several cheap or free programs. I have found this approach quite helpful. That is, I have found the online programs quite effective (I tried 3 of them) and much more convenient and cheaper than going to a live doctor who will teach you the techniques. (I tried that too and found the online programs easier and cheaper.)

Most cpap machine manufacturers sell 12vdc adapters that can be plugged into a cigarette lighter or similar 12 vdc ports. My current machine draws 60 watts including humidifier, which should not cause undue current drain.

This is my first post on this forum. I'm moved to post because the OP misses the point about sleep apnea. I say this as a person who has sleep apnea and who has had a CPAP machine for over 20 years. Sleep apnea is dangerous because it causes you to fall asleep during the day, sometimes for short periods called microsleep, sometimes for longer. When I got my CPAP, I sat in an office in a cube. My row included me and 3 other fat guys. Sometimes all four of us would fall asleep, causing office hilarity. When I got my machine and stopped falling asleep, the 3 other guy went for sleep studies. I took months to get used to the machine and I was helped with sleeping pills. (You can't drive commercially while using them, but I stopped using them once I got used to the machine.) The machines have gotten much more comfortable in the last 20 years. You probably want an auto cpap that adjusts the air pressure to the minimum needed, and a humidifier with heated tube. The problem with lying about your untreated sleep apnea is not that you might be in legal trouble. It's that you might fall asleep, get in an accident and kill someone. I fell asleep in a swivel chair. What if you fell asleep in the driver's seat?