Feeling Worse with CPAP Treatment

Why are you still tired after a CPAP treatment?

• If you’re still tired after using the CPAP device, you most certainly have CPAP resistant syndrome or True Residual Sleepiness.
• The science explains that there is residual sleepiness in some sleep apnea patients, taking time to go.

What are the causes of tiredness?

• hidden issues that directly affect CPAP therapy,
• problems that are not connected with CPAP therapy, but impact the quality of sleep
• No underlying issues – science calls this condition true residual sleepiness.

What are the risk factors when using the CPAP machine?

CPAP Mask Leaks

• 

  CPAP users could have the problem of CPAP mask leak

  Inexperienced CPAP consumers almost always have this problem.

• That’s why they are the majority who complain about fatigue, headache, and sleepiness in the day time.
• If your mask leaks just a short time, you’re accumulating sleep debt.
• So, fixing these leaks usually results in a better quality of life.

Improper CPAP Air Pressure

• Believe it or not, the CPAP titration study (where the CPAP is calibrated to the correct pressure that opens your airway) doesn’t always show the exact settings to get a good sleep.
• This means you may go home from sleep training with a wrong setup.
• It also means it’s possible you don’t get sufficient pressure to open your airways.
• The outcome: tiredness, headaches, depression during the day.

Mask Discomfort

• 

  You will get inadequate sleep if you struggle a lot to familiarize yourself with your CPAP mask

  Unfortunately, it’s not rare to take some time to adjust to sleeping with a CPAP mask on your face.

• It’s not easy. If you struggle a lot to familiarize yourself with your CPAP mask, you’ll get inadequate sleep.

What causes that are not linked with CPAP, but interrupts your sleep?

Central Sleep Apnea

Central sleep apnea is a sleep disorder where the brain forgets to command your body to breathe.

• Your CPAP is beneficial only if you have obstructive apnea, but is useless for the central apnea.

Medications that Can Impact Your Sleep

The most popular drugs that can make you feel sleepy during the day are:

• Antidepressants
• Sedative medication
• Medication that results in insomnia
• It’s not unusual for patients with sleep apnea to take drugs for depression.
• Though, these drugs have serious side effects that can affect your quality of sleep.

Can You Get Neuron Damage from Untreated Sleep Apnea?

• Scientists found that long-term exposure to low oxygen levels in mice leads to sleepiness during the day that persists at least several weeks after the oxygen levels are restored.
• This observation provoked the scientists to ask whether the neurons from the brain’s sleep control regions are damaged from long-term hypoxia (low oxygen levels).
• The longer you had an untreated sleep disorder, the more damage your neurons have.

How Does Depression and Obesity Impact You?

• Research showed that sleep apnea patients with depression are still tired even with nightly CPAP usage of 6 hours.
• The scientists also observed that obese people also had residual sleepiness with CPAP.
• It’s significant to lose weight – your sleep will improve.

Can the Residual Sleepiness be Treated?

• The good news is that the residual sleepiness will vanish in time.
• Nevertheless, the sleepiness decreased significantly with more extended CPAP use:
• Only 8.7% of patients still had residual sleepiness utilizing the CPAP 6 hours per night.
• 18.5% of patients still had sleepiness after utilizing the CPAP 4 hours or less per night.

Ways of Treating Your True Residual Sleepiness?

• Stimulant drugs that eliminate sleepiness.
• It may be essential for the doctor to prescribe Modafinil (Provigil) or Armodafinil (Nuvigil) as a stimulant.
• These drugs have been proven effective over the years, where the patients experience increase sleeplessness and daytime function.
• The doctor has to be very cautious with this prescription.
• If you don’t wear the CPAP every night for 6 hours, these stimulants can injure you with good sleep data.
• You require to sleep enough with your CPAP, to get these drugs.

References and Resources

• Symptoms of Central Sleep Apnea
• Types of CPAP Masks