4 ms·

I really like the Oura, and have had a 2nd gen which works great for nearly 7 years- battery still going strong. However the 2nd gen had no monthly subscription

by _yb2s 2y ago

I really like the Oura, and have had a 2nd gen which works great for nearly 7 years- battery still going strong. However the 2nd gen had no monthly subscription fee, which I really hate... I am not sure if I would be willing to upgrade, as I have a huge aversion to subscription fees. Overall, I don't really like their software either- in my experience their 'sleep score' is in no way correlated with quality of sleep, just length. The main factor in my sleep score that makes it really high is having severe accumulated sleep deprivation, so I sleep longer. In my opinion factors like sleep efficiency (e.g. not waking up a lot) should be the main thing in the score. Ultimately nobody really knows what "good" sleep is- it is variable from person to person and can't be meaningfully represented as a single number. I generally just pull the data into Python, and analyze it myself. Probably my most interesting finding is the massive negative impact even small amounts of alcohol have on my sleep. Even a single beer 4 hours before bedtime almost completely eliminates deep sleep. I've come to the conclusion that drinking early in the day is likely actually somewhat healthier, despite being culturally unacceptable. I've also found that the humidity really affects my sleep - especially altering breath rate- but I'm not sure what to make of that.

david-gpu 2y ago
If you wake up a lot at night and still feel tired in the morning... have you tried doing a sleep study? I believe that obstructive sleep apnea is severely under-diagnosed.
- _yb2s 2y ago
  Yes, I did a real sleep study and they said I do indeed have "mild" sleep apnea but it "isn't bad enough that we are willing to treat it." I do usually need several naps to get through a typical day- and that is after identifying and treating three other major health conditions that can cause fatigue. The newer Oura rings actually have an integrated pulse oximeter and can measure apnea, but mine does not. I wonder if I should just buy a CPAP on my own and see if I feel better. I probably should also lower my bodyweight... I am a weight lifter, although fairly lean, I am a big guy, and losing some weight might reduce apnea events.
  - andriesm 2y ago
    I did. Bought it myself. Learn how to enter clinician mode by holding the right buttons for your model. It's quite shocking how controlled and artificially limited things are in CPAP-land. cpap, and more advanced machines have identical hardware, but they cost orders of magnitude different prices. For many people have different pressure when inhaling vs exhaling is important - so called BiPAP. Everyone tells you start with CPAP, but if it turns out you need BiPAP then you need to replace the entire machine even though hacking the software works in, ahem, certain cases.
    - _yb2s 2y ago
      Thanks- how did it work out for you? Is there a more hackable model you'd recommend, e.g. one that can be turned into a bipap?
  - david-gpu 2y ago
    > I do usually need several naps to get through a typical day If that was me, I would pester either the same doctor or a new one to get a CPAP machine. It's not a set and forget device, you may need to try a few masks and tweak the settings until you find something that really works for you, but once it's dialed in it makes a big big difference to your quality of life. Trying to lose weight when you are not getting adequate sleep is an uphill battle. There are plenty of lean people that still need CPAP to get adequate sleep -- I was one of them.
    - _yb2s 2y ago
      I'll try but it is Kaiser- typically at Kaiser these judgements are out of the physicians control, they will fund a treatment only if you hit some specific number on a test- and it is virtually impossible for the doctor to override this- they need to get a bunch of signatures from other doctors, and use tons of political capital. I have two other major health conditions that badly needed treatment, which Kaiser would not treat, and I paid an outside doctor with cash to be able to receive treatment.
  - schwartzworld 2y ago

by _yb2s 2y ago

david-gpu 2y ago

If you wake up a lot at night and still feel tired in the morning... have you tried doing a sleep study? I believe that obstructive sleep apnea is severely under-diagnosed.

_yb2s 2y ago
Yes, I did a real sleep study and they said I do indeed have "mild" sleep apnea but it "isn't bad enough that we are willing to treat it." I do usually need several naps to get through a typical day- and that is after identifying and treating three other major health conditions that can cause fatigue. The newer Oura rings actually have an integrated pulse oximeter and can measure apnea, but mine does not. I wonder if I should just buy a CPAP on my own and see if I feel better. I probably should also lower my bodyweight... I am a weight lifter, although fairly lean, I am a big guy, and losing some weight might reduce apnea events.
- andriesm 2y ago
  I did. Bought it myself. Learn how to enter clinician mode by holding the right buttons for your model. It's quite shocking how controlled and artificially limited things are in CPAP-land. cpap, and more advanced machines have identical hardware, but they cost orders of magnitude different prices. For many people have different pressure when inhaling vs exhaling is important - so called BiPAP. Everyone tells you start with CPAP, but if it turns out you need BiPAP then you need to replace the entire machine even though hacking the software works in, ahem, certain cases.
  - _yb2s 2y ago
    Thanks- how did it work out for you? Is there a more hackable model you'd recommend, e.g. one that can be turned into a bipap?
- david-gpu 2y ago
  > I do usually need several naps to get through a typical day If that was me, I would pester either the same doctor or a new one to get a CPAP machine. It's not a set and forget device, you may need to try a few masks and tweak the settings until you find something that really works for you, but once it's dialed in it makes a big big difference to your quality of life. Trying to lose weight when you are not getting adequate sleep is an uphill battle. There are plenty of lean people that still need CPAP to get adequate sleep -- I was one of them.
  - _yb2s 2y ago
    I'll try but it is Kaiser- typically at Kaiser these judgements are out of the physicians control, they will fund a treatment only if you hit some specific number on a test- and it is virtually impossible for the doctor to override this- they need to get a bunch of signatures from other doctors, and use tons of political capital. I have two other major health conditions that badly needed treatment, which Kaiser would not treat, and I paid an outside doctor with cash to be able to receive treatment.
- schwartzworld 2y ago