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Camping and CPAP: Enjoying outdoor adventures while treating sleep apnea

Mark, 50, is an outdoor kind of guy.
He loves to hunt, fish, hike and camp for days at a time.
The only problem is he has sleep apnea and uses an electric CPAP machine to ensure a good night’s rest.
As much as he loves his machine, and he does, he hates it when it’s time to plan a trip.
Without the machine, he can’t sleep at night, but the machine is about the size of a brick, can’t get wet and needs to be recharged every 12 hours or so. In other words, it cramps his outdoor style.
“It’s a real problem,” agreed his doctor Rob McCain, a sleep specialist in Nashville, Tenn., who has been treating Mark.
“He likes to go back packing, but you’re stuck lugging around a car battery in your back pack. The battery pack the company provides needs to be recharged frequently.”
If you’re not an outdoorsy person, this may not sound like a big deal. But for those who are, it really is.
Outdoor enthusiasts have to plot and plan their adventures around their CPAP machines. There are even on-line chat rooms revolving around camping with CPAP, where campers share stories of rigging their CPAP machines to solar panels, marine batteries and fuses.
“If you are back packing and hiking, I appreciate the problem,” said Dr. Charles Gordon, a neurosurgeon in Tyler, Texas with a keen interest in sleep disorders. “But I don’t know the answer.”
Not many people do.
Unfortunately, there are few realistic ways to rig a CPAP to go for nights at a time without a regular electrical supply.
But there are alternatives.
One such alternative is the Thornton Adjustable Positioner, which does the trick for most patients. TAP is an FCA approved dental appliance which moves the jaw forward creating a larger airway.
“For about two-thirds of patients, it opens up their airways enough for them to breathe better,” said Grant Hensley, a Brentwood, Tenn. dentist who has fitted hundreds of TAP devices for his clients.
“The TAP works, especially if the apnea diagnosis is mild to moderate,” he said.
McCain said while it’s no automatic guarantee “it’s better than noting in the middle of nowhere.”
Hensley also suggested Breathe Right Strips, which are Band Aid like strips which attached to the nose and gently pull open the nasal passage.
McCain said patients have had some success rigging their CPAP machines to marine batteries which last much longer than car batteries.
“But obviously you can’t lug a marine battery around in your back pack,” McCain said.
Gordon, who enjoys camping himself, suggested outdoor enthusiasts look for activities that are CPAP friendly — like canoeing.
“That’s the great thing about a canoe trip, you can carry a big battery pack in a canoe,” Gordon said.
Just make sure you don’t flip.
If all else fails, McCain suggested car camping and plugging the CPAP in to the power adaptor. It may not be as adventurous as you’d like, but you can use your machine, he said.
And if the ads for SUVs are correct, you can park your LandRover or Ford Explorer on the side of a cliff, which should be as adventurous as you want to get.
“That’s it,” McCain said. “There is nothing else I know of.
“If you go on camping trips and you don’t want to snore or disrupt people around you, go camping where there is a power supply. Otherwise, if you are out in the middle of nowhere, you are out of luck.”
Written by Dorren Robinson, Content Director for www.ISleptGreat.com.
Dorren’s days are spent playing many roles — journalist, professor, wife, and mother.
She is keenly aware of how elusive great sleep can be.

Original content created for Isleptgreat.com
Robert McCain, M.D. sleep specialist.
www.dreamawaysleeplabs.com/staff_drmccain.htm
Grant Hensley, D.D.S.
http://www.granthensleydentistry.com