No-Nap Diving

After a couple of tanks’ worth of diving, many divers can barely keep their eyes open and head for a nap. It seems it’s not the exertion that gets to them, but the effect of nitrogen. In fact, divers report that one benefit of Nitrox is less fatigue, which is attributed to increased oxygen and less nitrogen in the air they breathe. That seems to be borne out by research conducted at the Kawashima Orthopedic Hospital in Tokyo. They tested caisson workers using both compressed air and a trimix of increased oxygen plus helium and found that the incidence of mental and physical fatigue of the airbreathing group was the highest while the tri-mix gas-breathing group was the lowest. It could be just one more reason to become a Nitrox diver.