Sleep apnea and high altitude?

Anybody experience hiking or activities and have more trouble with them at higher altitude (11K). Today went snowshoeing, and had a lot of trouble. Last year I actually got altitude sick, this year I was very conscious of fluid intake and did a little better. I am in in my 60s but healthy and do hiking and so on. I live at 5K.

Wondering if the sleep apnea makes this harder. I am on CPAP but just started.

I live at about 350 ft. elevation and use CPAP. I have made numerous vacation trips to the Rocky Mountain region and have spent up to two weeks at elevations as great as 11,000 ft. with no upset to my sleep routines-or at least no effects that I was aware of. I suppose that individuals response to altitude change may be an individual characteristic and bother some people and not affect others. I certainly felt daytime physical effects such as fatigue and shortness of breath with exertion hiking, but I always slept well.

TheDuke

I live at about 0 feet sea level (right on the ocean), but had a nice trip up to Glacier Park a while ago, and then drove up to Banff and Jasper from there. Some of those nights were tent camping at altitude. High enough so the night time temperatures were around freezing in early August. Anyways, no problems, everything just worked. I had brought a hose cover to prevent rainout, since I knew the temperatures would be lower up between Banff and Jasper. So it pays to be prepared, but if you are, you can have a great time and not worry.

It is my understanding that the high altitude effect is not on the apnea per se but on the blood oxygen level.
I live at a low level but have great difficulty keeping my SpO2 above 88% when on a long airline flight. Cabin pressure seems to be set to about 5,000 ft.

Is anyone who camps at above 5,000 feet recording their SpO2 and heart rate to see if anything special is going on at night?

Edit: Here is a link to an interesting study in this area:
http://online.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10 ... .2009.1060

Since I'm not yet treated (just started CPAP) I would guess the question is would a low O2 level during sleep make it harder to deal with a lower O2 blood level while awake? Will treating this make me more able to handle it. This was a day trip. Went up there during the day and I live in Albuquerque where the altitude where I live is 5-6K. (My O2 doesn't drop tremendously but does go under 90% during sleep, not actually for that long but still...)

BTW, I noticed the study was from Denali. I've heard that Denali is one of the roughest mountains in the world for altitude sickness because the altitude gains are so tremendous. I believe for K2 or Everest you are already at a high altitude but obviously gain, but for Denali, you start off near sea level.

jonny515 wrote:Since I'm not yet treated (just started CPAP) I would guess the question is would a low O2 level during sleep make it harder to deal with a lower O2 blood level while awake? Will treating this make me more able to handle it. This was a day trip. Went up there during the day and I live in Albuquerque where the altitude where I live is 5-6K. (My O2 doesn't drop tremendously but does go under 90% during sleep, not actually for that long but still...)

BTW, I noticed the study was from Denali. I've heard that Denali is one of the roughest mountains in the world for altitude sickness because the altitude gains are so tremendous. I believe for K2 or Everest you are already at a high altitude but obviously gain, but for Denali, you start off near sea level.

Sleep apnea and low 02 during sleep has no bearing on daytime problems. The reason for 02 drop during sleep is because you stop breathing when you have untreated SA and don't use your CPAP. You don't stop breathing when you are awake.

Yes, I guess what I am wondering is if low O2 during sleep makes your body (for lack of a better way of putting it) less resilient to low O2 during wake?

LSAT wrote:
Sleep apnea and low 02 during sleep has no bearing on daytime problems. The reason for 02 drop during sleep is because you stop breathing when you have untreated SA and don't use your CPAP. You don't stop breathing when you are awake.

Your ability to handle high altitudes depends on your genetic make up.

Some people with untreated OSA have an easier time because their bodies are used to low O2 (and you can see it in their blood work) Others are so run down from their OSA that any increase in altitude will basically make them feel like crap.

Before my sleep apnea was treated, I visited several high-altitude (8,00 plus) locations and flew (slept on) a lot of long-distance (10-20 hour) flights. Headaches killed me. When I learned about my apnea, I understood why - my overnight O2 levels must have been frightfully low!
As someone else here said, daytime levels are what they are, but at least you are trying to breath deeply and frequently. At night you teeter on the brink of catastrophe.

Genetics have a lot to do with it.
They found out that some Sherpas have tolerances that cannot be achieved by others, even with years of training.

dvejr wrote:Before my sleep apnea was treated, I visited several high-altitude (8,00 plus) locations and flew (slept on) a lot of long-distance (10-20 hour) flights. Headaches killed me. When I learned about my apnea, I understood why - my overnight O2 levels must have been frightfully low!
As someone else here said, daytime levels are what they are, but at least you are trying to breath deeply and frequently. At night you teeter on the brink of catastrophe.

I also experienced significant migraines on long flights (12-15 hr) prior to CPAP. Now I also take magnesium prior to flying.

My 02 is in the lower range when I'm awake while sitting or standing and while on CPAP around 89-93 at 1500 feet. The sleep doctor thinks I have another issue ill be going to a pulmonologist. The strange thing is when I exercise my o2 goes up to 95-97 range the same thing happens at 9500 feet. If your 02 is low while awake I would get it checked out rule out any other lung issues.

kell420 wrote:My 02 is in the lower range when I'm awake while sitting or standing and while on CPAP around 89-93 at 1500 feet. The sleep doctor thinks I have another issue ill be going to a pulmonologist. The strange thing is when I exercise my o2 goes up to 95-97 range the same thing happens at 9500 feet. If your 02 is low while awake I would get it checked out rule out any other lung issues.

Mild COPD does that for me. Good you are going to a pulmonologist to check.
Mine stemmed from lung damage from severe influenza that put me in the hospital.

Sorry about the COPD. No, I have normal O2 levels while awake. I did read that snowshoeing (which is what I was doing at 11K) is VERY effective exercise, uses more calories than cross country skiing or running. So I was just probably not in that good condition. If I had hiked probably would have been less bothered.

For years, I would have headaches every day while we were at altitude, till about a week had gone by. Once I got on CPAP, no more headaches.