Sleep Apnea Will Ruin Your Life!

I had another thing I put on my list here I wanted to mention, almost as a public service, sleep apnea. I have sleep apnea. And do you know about this? Do you snore? I have a mouthpiece. Do you have the CPAP machine? No, no. Oh, you do the jaw thing. No, no, it's different. It holds my tongue down. It keeps my tongue from sliding back. It made a world difference. Changed everything. Dude, that's why I wanted to mention it. Anybody who's got like, I was not breathing for 20 seconds at a time. And yeah, this woman I was sleeping with like actually counted, you know, and she's like, dude, like you're choking, you're suffocating. Yeah. So I went and got a test. It's super easy. You take it home and hook this thing in your finger and all that. And they told me, I think it was like 25 episodes per hour is considered severe. I had 74. Every minute I was suffocating to the point where I sort of woke up and like my throat tissue, you know, the muscles contract so you can breathe again. So you're like always at the surface. I got one of those machines. Dude, I'm like sleeping again. I'm dreaming. It's fantastic. Now, do you have a hard time putting that thing on your mouth? No, it's no problem. It's like scuba diving. You got a regulator, you know? I mean, the one I, you have the full face one that goes over your nose and your mouth if you tend to breathe through your mouth or they have them that just go over your nose. Which one do you have? I have both. I started because I used the nose one and then I was breathing through my mouth and that's all weird. So then I got the big one. But after a month with that, now I just use the nose one. Now that pumps air, right? What it does is it creates air pressure but just very, it's adjustable. It adjusts based on your reaction to it. And so when you are, when you're breathing, the air pressure keeps the passages open. So it can be anatomical. It can be your tongue falling back. That's what it is for me. Yeah. So it keeps the passage open. It's just the slight pressure. And it's really nice because you take a, it's like you take a deep breath and it fills your lungs because there's just that little extra push. And it's totally quiet. Like there's all this stigma around it. Like people think it's really like gross or loud or whatever. It's not, the new machines are great and they have a humidifier in them so you can adjust the... Do you, how do you power it up when you're camping and stuff? Well, I've got an electrical system in the van and I also have a backup battery, a little lithium battery. That's all you need? You don't power the whole night like that? Yeah. If you don't use the humidifier. If you use the humidifier, it sucks up more because it's a heating thing. Does the humidifier help? Yeah, it's great because you can adjust it. You know, like here in LA, we're in a desert. It's dry. So you can turn it up. If you're, you know, I was in Seattle, I'd turn it off. It doesn't matter. So it's just changed the way you feel? I feel so much better. I'm like sleeping through the night. I dream again. Yeah. I didn't, I mean, I feel kind of evangelical about it because, you know, I know a lot of people have this, men and women. And there's this weird kind of shame around it. And I'm just trying to be like, hey. Yeah, it's a weird thing to be shameful about. Yeah, fuck it, man. Sleep. You got to sleep. It's really important. It makes everything better. You're like 50% more likely to have car accidents if you have sleep out here. Yeah. Yeah. It'll fuck up your job. It'll fight. You won't get hard ons. It'll like ruin everything. Some people, it's really bad too. And it goes on for years and years and years. They don't even know about it. I was on a plane once and there was a guy behind me and I would hear. Yeah. And I turned around and I was like, oh, this poor bastard. He was a big guy, like very overweight. And I mean, I was watching this guy lying there with his mouth open like this for a long time. And then finally he would jostle and catch some air. And he woke up and I said, hey, man. And I said, do you know you have sleep apnea? He's like, what do you mean? And I said, okay, let me tell you what's going on. And I showed him my mouthpiece. I go, like, I have this thing that I have to sleep with because it was a long flight we're on. And I said, you got to go to a doctor, get that checked out. And he goes, oh, okay, thanks. I go, no, no, no, really. You got to go to a doctor. I go, this is going to, it'll change your life. Heart disease. Like a lot of bad shit can happen. It also affects people's dietary choices. Because when you're exhausted like that, I know how I am. Like last night I was tired. I came home from the improv. It was like one o'clock in the morning. I should not have eaten. But I was like, fuck it. And I made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich at 1 a.m. I definitely shouldn't have had that. Where's the el camino jalapenos, man? Well, I just felt like peanut butter and jelly. Yeah, got to do it. It's a bad choice. But when you're tired, you make bad choices. You make bad dietary choices. It's very, very common. When people are exhausted and overworked. And I think that has to apply to people with sleep apnea. When you're always exhausted. Like throughout the day, you're just sucking down coffee and trying to stay awake. Yeah, yeah. My dad had it for sure. And he never had it treated. And yeah, maybe that's another reason that I'm sort of evangelical about it. Because it's like, it's so easy. So many of the things that mess up our lives are really hard to address. Like the litany of things you were talking about. Board meetings and all that. But you know, if you can get a good night's sleep for, you know, a visit to a doctor and I mean, this thing cost 800 bucks for this machine I have. Yeah, it changes your whole life. Your whole life solves the problem. You know, like, that's pretty cool. It's pretty fucking cool. Some people have a problem with those CPAP machines, but maybe it's just the kind they use. Joey Diaz changed his life. He started using that thing. He brings it. He's got a portable unit. He brings him on planes. Brings it everywhere. Yeah, it's great. I mean, I wish every problem were that easy to solve. Yeah, right? No kidding.