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]