Sleeping in an Altitude Tent

[Zack Vegas]

Welp, I finally did it.  Last night, I spent the first night sleeping in an Altitude Tent.  True, it’s simulated altitude, but most studies have concluded that most of the benefits of living at higher altitude can be reaped from simulated altitude.

This is one of those ideas that Ray Peat talked about a lot, and ascribed a lot of benefits to, but that most followers don’t experiment too much with.  This is somewhat understandable, as most people don’t want to pack up and move to Denver/Albuquerque/Flagstaff/Mexico City and such, or even higher places like La Paz or various ski resorts.

Peat himself didn’t talk much about the altitude tents, and spoke poorly of them the one time he was asked.  But, that was over 10 years ago, and most of the altitude tent setups at the time involved a very small canopy that just went over your head when sleeping.  I’d agree, that doesn’t sound that great.  The buy in is also fairly expensive, usually around $3-5,000 for a new system.  Not outrageous, but not a trivial amount of money for most.

Anyway, I recently found an altitude generator (or hypoxicator, if you prefer) on Ebay for about $300.  I jumped at that.  I then purchased a new queen size bed tent for about another $300.  I might show pictures at some point, but this is a far better setup, IMO, than the canopy.  Of note, I believe one altitude tent company rents a setup like this for $600 a month.  So, for that rental price, I now have a system that I basically own.  Not bad.

Anyway, last night I slept in the tent.  The generator makes a bit of noise, but I put it in the closet, which reduced it considerably.  I am used to sleeping with white noise, and the noise from the generator wasn’t an issue.  I did wake up a few times, and noticed I was hotter and more sweaty than usual.  This is pretty common, most people say they get really hot the first night or two, as they get used to sleeping in the tent.  This is also likely a good sign, as it indicates that your metabolism is ramping up.  Also, since fall starts next week, and temperatures are dropping, it’s probably a good time to test this out.

I plan on giving this a run for at least a month or so, to really see how it plays out.  Will update with new info when it comes.

[Anonymous]

madlad

next start taking ice bath in the morning to stimulate the mitochondria

[Kevin007]

I’ve been considering that ever since you mentioned it in my cancer thread.   I had two concerns though – the first was my wife, and if she could tolerate the noise and inconvenience (or me sleeping in another bed/room) and the second is safety.  From what I understand, they remove oxygen to simulate altitude – what safety mechanisms are built in… to avoid not waking up 😉

Please keep us updated on your progress.

[J.R.K]

This sounds like an interesting experiment @Zack Vegas. I look forward to hearing your results, and some material sourcing to replicate your experiment.

[Zack Vegas]

The machines do lower oxygen concentration in the air.  I don’t know if “remove” is really the right word, but they basically work by altering the ratios of oxygen and nitrogen.  So, the air that’s pumped into the tent has a lower oxygen percentage, and higher nitrogen percentage.  The machine I have will only go to 11% Oxygen (which apparently simulates Everest Base Camp, at about 16,000 feet).  So, I don’t think there is much, if any, risk of getting airflow with NO oxygen.  The tent itself is mostly, but not fully, airtight.  So, I think any sort of suffocation risk is overall pretty low (I think there is even a very slight risk of suffocation in a normal bedroom, but really so low it’s basically of no concern).  I would think if anything, if the oxygen concentration got too low, you would end up waking in the night really hot and sweaty.  That’s happened to me at the lowest oxygen concentration (aka, highest simulated altitude) that I’ve tried so far.

Here’s a college aged athlete who’s been using the tents for years, so this might help alleviate some of the suffocation concerns- https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=B4zIwjbnWNU

As for your concerns with your wife, you’d have to discuss the idea with her.  They have king and queen size bed tents, so they are big enough that you could go on this altitude journey together.  There are also small canopies, so you could just do it alone, but as Cam Nicholls said in his video, they aren’t that great for romance, and he ended up sleeping in a different bed for the duration of his experiment (the relevant part starts around 5 min)-

Rico Rogers, the former cyclist, used an altitude tent with his wife for a long time, and eventually they did a bedroom conversion, so that would be ideal for a couple, but it’s also the most expensive option, and very permanent.

I think the best option would be to get a big tent and use it as a couple, if your wife is also interested in the idea.  The noise of the machine could be an issue, but if you can put it in another room (my current setup), it cuts it down significantly.  I’ve been using a white noise machine for a few years now, so any noise that comes from the other room isn’t an issue.

[Author]

Posts