Wearing a neoprene cap = Less fatigue

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Salt

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I started wearing a little neoprene cap on my dive vacations. It works great.

As background: when I was doing a lot of diving getting my AOW and Rescue on Utila and then doing some fun diving on Roatan, I noticed some funny things going on with my body. But basically fatigue.

I posted here on this forum at the time trying to understand some of the things going on in my body. All kinds of things happen having to do with temperature and depth and other things.

I concluded that despite being in the Caribbean and wearing a shorty wetsuit, my body was getting cold. Easy enough to happen: I have an thin/athletic build with low body fat; and we are down there for 45-55 minutes x two dives. I often get cold - not shivering cold but cold enough - and end up crossing my arms and holding them against my body.

I learned that being cold is what makes you have to pee. If you are truly warm, you don't have to pee at all ! And when you do all that peeing, you can be dehydrated when you get back to shore. (Make sure to drink liquids on that surface interval.)

So, wearing a neoprene cap has allowed me to stay warmer, be less dehydrated, and feel better when I am done my dives.
 
A full suit would help too, especially with multiple dives. (Typically 5 daily on a liveaboard.)
 
Whenever you're in water more than a few degrees cooler than your body temperature there is a net flow of heat from you to the water.
I've had similar experiences as you, but instead of the hydration explanation, I theorized that staying warmer means less heat energy lost. Less loss of energy should equate to less fatigue.
 
I learned that being cold is what makes you have to pee. If you are truly warm, you don't have to pee at all ! And when you do all that peeing, you can be dehydrated when you get back to shore. (Make sure to drink liquids on that surface interval.)
I don't think this is true. As I understand this effect it is because of the mammalian diving reflex, where sensory neurons on your forehead detects a change in pressure in your surroundings, this triggers a response in the body where the body prepares for working with lower levels of oxygen, two of the important changes in the body is lowering the heart rate and thickening of the blood where liquids is subtracted from the blood to concentrate the red blood cells. It is the thickening of the blood that results in having to go to pee since the subtracted liquid has to go somewhere. Of course I might be completely wrong, and this might be yet an another myth.
 
Glad it worked for you :)

Unfortunately, I don't notice any difference. I started wearing neoprene cap simply to keep my hair in control, and I still had to skip a dive because I was that exhausted during the last trip. No difference to the trip before last one.

Is it just me?
 
Excessive tiredness is often attributed to sub-clinical DCS rather than mild hypothermia. You might want to consider Nitrox if you're not already using it, slowing your ascent rates, or shortening your bottom times.
 
Excessive tiredness is often attributed to sub-clinical DCS rather than mild hypothermia. You might want to consider Nitrox if you're not already using it, slowing your ascent rates, or shortening your bottom times.

I would also suggest that the "fatigue" might actually be mild DCS.

Cold can be a major factor in DCS as it can slow offgassing. For that reason I would always try to make sure I am warm on a dive even if it means being very warm on the surface.
 
Fairly certain that it wasn't hypothermia, as the last trip was to Thailand and the water temperature was about 28/29C at 30 meters and I was in my 3mm full suit

I just thought I didn't have the stamina. Maybe I should be looking into this mild DCS thing now.

And get nitrox cert too, especially at one point I had less than 5 minutes of no deco limit left at 28 meters.
 
Fairly certain that it wasn't hypothermia, as the last trip was to Thailand and the water temperature was about 28/29C at 30 meters and I was in my 3mm full suit

I just thought I didn't have the stamina. Maybe I should be looking into this mild DCS thing now.

And get nitrox cert too, especially at one point I had less than 5 minutes of no deco limit left at 28 meters.
It doesn't have to be hypothermia, just cold for the offgassing to be affected. If you are feeling cold enough to need to

"I concluded that despite being in the Caribbean and wearing a shorty wetsuit, my body was getting cold. Easy enough to happen: I have an thin/athletic build with low body fat; and we are down there for 45-55 minutes x two dives. I often get cold - not shivering cold but cold enough - and end up crossing my arms and holding them against my body."

then it is probably compromising your circulation to some extent and therefore your ability to offgas from certain tissues. This means that you might have more gas on board when on the surface especially if you were close to NDL.

I can't remember the topic it was mentioned in but there are studies to say that warm entry/cold exit dives are the worst for nitrogen loading.
 

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