When you have untreated sleep apnea, you are so completely exhausted from night after night of inadequate sleep that you “seem” to fall asleep easily. Of course even when you fall into sleep almost immediately, it is often a poor, damaged sleep that leaves you tired and foggy during the day.

   When you begin treatment, you might find that CPAP makes falling asleep difficult and suddenly begin to experience some degree of insomnia. This can be very discouraging if your experience prior to treatment was that you slept almost immediately. And now treatment seems to make falling asleep and staying asleep challenging and frustrating. Although you may find falling asleep difficult with CPAP, once asleep CPAP helps you progress through the four stages of sleep and sleep quality is greatly improved.

   Of course, insomnia is only one possible issue that might be causing you to feel tired while using CPAP. It may be that your settings are wrong, pressure is too high, or your mask is uncomfortable or leaking. Any number of equipment-related issues might be causing you to get less-than-optimum sleep.   If your CPAP wakes you up every morning at 3am because the pressure ramps up too quickly, it’s hard to get good quality sleep. If your mask is blowing air into your eye all night, it’s hard to get good quality sleep.  You find yourself using CPAP but still tired all the time — not the outcome you would hope for.

   Fortunately, most of these issues can be resolved.  With a few simple steps most people can sleep noticeably better than they have ever slept. And with good quality sleep every element of physical, emotional and cognitive health is properly supported. Sleep is the foundation of good health.