my dad is on one- He gets about 3-4 hours sleep then is wide awake till morning many times- The work does help for sure- but not as active in wintertime unless it snows-
The ring sounds interesting- I will definitely check that out- it coulb be that the cpap isn’t calibrated right and is not effective enough-
“He gets about 3-4 hours sleep then is wide awake till morning many times”
I sympathize with your dad. I’m 72 and that happens to me, too, even with the CPAP. Sometimes I can get back to sleep after being awake an hour or so. Oftentimes during that hour I’ll take the CPAP mask off (I still find it annoying) and immediately the problems return when I doze off for another two or three hours).
“Not as active in wintertime” — definitely agree with that. I did several hours of close-to-final pruning and yard cleaning yesterday and filled the truck with six 50 pound bags again. Then we got a slight snowfall this morning, so it just MIGHT be the last yard work for the season.
The gym is good for keeping the activity up when the ground is snow-covered.
If the CPAP is the automatic type that adjusts its pressure, breathe exclusively through the mouth eight times, then through the machine (use “nose pillows”, not an over-the-face mask). This tricks the machine into increasing the pressure - which can help with sleep.
A different trick that does not work as reliably is to resist the pressure just a little bit as you breathe in, then breath out a bit more quickly. You may get a little breathless this way, so sometimes it feels like it is more trouble than it is worth. The goal is to trick the machine into increasing the pressure a little bit.
(YMMV: Your mileage may vary.)