alt Hacker NewsPeople should be more aware of the symptoms of sleep apneas - the lack of energy during the day, feeling tired, waking up throughout the night, waking up tired/exhausted, etc. People with untreated sleep apnea have multiple folds higher chances to be depressed, unemployed, and have trouble with basic life functions, in addition to the long term health consequences of depriving your brain from Oxygen.
I've suggested 4 people over the last couple of years to get tested based on them casually mentioning some of these symptoms, and all 4 got diagnosed with moderate to severe sleep apnea (which is classified by the number of times you stopped breathing every hour - AHI, and the blood oxygen level). Getting tested is easy and cheap - you can find kits for under $100 which essentially are just a monitor you attach your finger + a few ECG stickers on your body which you use for a couple of nights. You can order them online without talking to a doctor, and you will get a prescription for CPAP if you are diagnosed as positive.
Treatment with CPAP is highly effective in eliminating these symptoms, and also reversing the brain damage (although MRI scans shows that it takes around a year for the gray matter in your brain to restore itself).
The other suggestion I'd make is that if you are overweight or obese, GLP-1 has proven to be also a miracle drug for sleep apnea. Unlike the study mentioned above, that essentially reduced the average AHI of participants by 4, which for almost everyone wouldn't cure them. Drugs like Zepbound have shown that over half are cured from sleep apnea after roughly a year of use. This is in addition to the other health benefits they provide with the weight reduction. Essentially. This unfortunately won't work for everyone, as weight is not the only cause of sleep apnea, but it is by far the most common one.
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Having been down this path, it’s evident to me that the US has built up a sizable medical equipment industry around CPAP machines and their supplies. The sleep doctors who prescribe them don’t have many alternatives, so it’s the normal treatment they hand out.
So it’s not a surprise that a casual mention of sleep quality ended with a CPAP machine rented by the month. It’s kind of what happened to me.
100% agree. I can cleanly divide my life into before and after treatment for sleep apnea, I didn't realize I wasn't supposed to feel awful and tired all the time.
Yes the lead is buried in the article.
The drug reduces AHI by 4. It could only cure very mild sleep apnea. Otherwise it seems most useful as an additional treatment with CPAP.
It could also help raise awareness of sleep apnea - try the drug first. Don't see any changes? Ok now try CPAP.
I bought a connected oxymeter (viatom). I wore it overnight on my finger with the phone nearby. The graph on the app shows exact values through the night so you can see how many time oxygen drops and for how long. It's not quite as good as the real thing but should give you an idea, and it's cheap.
I've tried a CPAP machine for 6 weeks and felt no different and gave up. I think I was a 6 on the scale. I wish it had worked though!
Currently I've just given up and embracing feeling relatively tired all the time. I've tried side sleeping devices (woody knows backpack) mandibular advancement splints etc.
So hard to tell (I find anyway) to get to a definitive answer
Would you had precise kits references to share? It is quite hard to figure out what has cheap electronic versus what works. Thanks!
#1 symptom - fat necks! if you are like me and had a 17" neck at 185 in high school and now boast a 18.5".... you have it!
Any brand of test kit you recommend?
> Treatment with CPAP is highly effective in eliminating these symptoms
… for those who tolerate it. Numbers are all over the place, but roughly people who start it are only 50% likely to still be using it properly after a year.
> People should be more aware of the symptoms of sleep apneas
I'm always a bit puzzled that this needs to be pointed out? I don't have sleep apnea per se, at least not chronically, but I've definitely had bouts of it due to allergy, sickness, stuff like that. The symptoms are the same because the mechanism is the same: I didn't get enough oxygen in the night.
It's always glaringly obvious to me the next day. I feel way more tired and exhausted than I normally would given the amount of sleep. I sometimes had instances of waking up gasping for air.
I really don't need to be told in those instances that there was an issue during the night. My sleep didn't sleep, of course there's something wrong and needs to be looked at?
Like, one time's a fluke, but if it happens a lot...
This is worth pursuing for anyone with the symptoms.
However please do it with a reputable doctor, preferably associated with an established institution. Watch out for some of the specialty clinics and independent practice doctors who treat apnea like a cash cow.
Sleep study scoring is theoretically set by strict rules, but in practice there can be differences between operators and clinics. Some clinics use this to their advantage to push more treatments and equipment and they’ll do it in ways that are most profitable for themselves. If they can’t get you scored high enough on the first sleep study they’ll pressure you to keep coming back for more studies or in some cases to start paying out of pocket after your insurance company starts refusing so many repeat studies with negative results.
The better clinics are not afraid to tell someone they don’t have apnea or that they likely won’t benefit from PAP machine. They also aren’t shy about telling someone that weight management can be the best long term solution for weight-related cases, whereas some clinics won’t mention it because they want you coming back to them for never ending management.