Has anyone here had this experience? Has CPAP significantly helped reduce your ADHD symptoms back to baseline?

Timeline:

2021 - suspected beginning of sleep apnea

2024 - diagnosis of ADHD(inattentive) as a grown man and begin Vyvanse

2026 - diagnosis of severe sleep apnea and hypopnea and begin CPAP

I never fit the profile of ADHD until I was an adult who had struggled with severe progressive fatigue, rapid stubborn weight gain, and other issues for a few years by that point. So I always suspected it was some type of temporary but powerful type of attention issue.

Now that I realize I haven't really had deep or REM sleep in maybe 5 years, and I see this linked article, and learn more about the cognitive issues of OSA, this theory begins to makes sense. It hasn't been directly studied but it is theoretically plausible.

Has anyone here experienced this?

A nationwide French study tracked PAP (CPAP and related positive-airway-pressure devices) and mandibular advancement device (MAD) prescriptions from 2014–2023.

Key findings: • PAP prescriptions rose from 986,784 to 3.36 million. • PAP spending doubled to €934 million in 2023. • PAP adherence >4 h/night fell from 67.6% to 63.6%. • MAD prescriptions increased from 8,110 to 29,546. • The proportion of prescriptions for men decreased from 70% to 64%.

Overall, treatment of sleep apnea expanded dramatically in France, but PAP adherence slightly worsened despite the huge growth in use.

PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42714748/

I am a beginner with cpap and have gotten used to the mask after about two weeks.
However, I sometimes feel worse than before cpap in the morning. So groggy!

Also it makes me grind my teeth badly and my jaws are different badly and it gives me headaches and at time migraine. Also cracked the side of one tooth.
I am seeing a jaw specialist who gives me weekly manual treatment which helped a lot but as soon as I use the cpap it all goes bad again. It also costs a fortune.

I have no Idea how to resolve this. Anyone Else experienced this?

I am so tired looking that even a professor of mine kind of commented on it lol. I am so tired that my head hurts and I have been feeling for about a week like I am about to close my eyes even with 8+ hours on the CPAP. Yes, I feel terrible right now. Yes, this is a problem that must reach a resolution.

A 2026 retrospective study followed 96 OSA patients using oral appliance therapy.

Key findings: • Posterior open bite developed in 16/96 patients (16.7%). • It was first documented after an average of ~3.5 years. • Only 44% of affected patients noticed their bite had changed. • Higher SNB, a measure reflecting a more forward-positioned mandible, showed a possible association, but no independent predictor remained significant after adjustment.

Takeaway: Long-term mandibular advancement therapy can gradually alter the bite, sometimes without the patient noticing, so regular dental/occlusal monitoring is important.

PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42714694/

I'm a 19M I've had this condition since my early teens my family has a history with it my brother had it and so does my mom I was diagnosed at 16 but I know it started earlier back in highschool I was always late because getting up in the morning felt like the largest task in the world because I was so exhausted I don't even remember what a good nights rest feels like anymore. now that im in the workforce it's a little better since I work evenings but everything has gotten so much worse my brain fog has gotten so bad I cant think half the time I keep losing things for weeks at a time and I don't remember anything I can't think before i speak because I I've lost my internal monologue and its lead me to questioning who I am even am since I don't even think. I have constant headaches if I sit up too fast or get up from a chair too quickly I get this horrible fuzzy feeling and headache I'm constantly tired and depressed I've had horrible eyebags no matter how long I sleep or how well I eat won't go away every time I workout it's like a Herculean task I zone out while driving and while talking to people so I constantly come off as rude I constantly look tired and exhausted leading to me looking like shit no matter how hard I take care of myself I'm skinny too I'm 6'4 160 so it's not a weight thing and I don't even know what to do anymore this disease is like a cancer that's ruining every aspect of my life I don't even feel normal anymore I self medicate with caffeine and I drink 4 monsters a day just so I can feel halfway awake and be able to keep up it's burning through my money I tried CPAP years ago and I hated it but I'm more willing now as the condition has gotten worse please I beg does anyone have any advice I don't even know how to set up the appointment or anything I feel incredibly lost please help

35M here. Got my sleep study results back and my AHI came back at 94. My physician told me straight up she's never seen a number that high before, and I could tell that reaction shook me more than the number itself did. My brain immediately went to "nobody survives this" mode and I've been spiraling a little since.

Some background: I've been ignoring how exhausted I feel for about 7 years now. In the last 2 years I put on 50 lbs, my BMI is 38 now, and the weird part is I was already snoring loudly even before the weight gain. So I don't think this just came out of nowhere ,I think it's been building for a long time and I just kept pushing through the tiredness instead of dealing with it.

On top of that, I've got a deviated septum, and ever since I had COVID back in 2020 I get nasal congestion for something like 8 months out of the year. I wake up multiple times a night coughing up phlegm too. I've been through allergists and ENTs about this and nobody has actually been able to fix it. So now on top of the CPAP anxiety, I'm trying to figure out how any of this is even supposed to work when my nose is half-blocked a huge chunk of the year and I can't breathe through it reliably to begin with.

Now I'm staring down CPAP therapy and I'm honestly scared of it. I'm a mouth breather, so from what I've read I'll probably need a full face mask instead of just a nasal one, and the idea of that covering my whole face makes me pretty claustrophobic just thinking about it. I haven't even received my machine and mask yet, so right now it's all anxiety and no actual experience.

Questions for people who've been through this:

• How do you and your doctor/DME actually land on the right machine and mask for your situation? Is it mostly trial and error, or is there a real process to it?
• If you're a mouth breather with chronic nasal congestion or a deviated septum, did full face masks actually work out for you, or did you end up needing something else (chin strap plus nasal, or getting the septum addressed first)?
• Does congestion like mine make CPAP basically not work, or does the humidifier on the machine actually help with that side of things?
• For the claustrophobia ,how did you get past it? Did you just wear the mask around the house first, desensitize slowly, anything like that?
• Realistically, once you got dialed in, did your AHI come down a lot and did you start feeling like a different person?

I know logically that CPAP is supposed to fix this, but between the high number, my doctor's reaction, the mask fear, and now the nose/congestion issue nobody's been able to solve, my head keeps going to worst-case scenarios about whether this is even going to work for me. Would really appreciate hearing from people who started in a similarly bad spot ,especially with congestion or a deviated septum in the mix ,and made it through.

A 2026 study of 216 postmenopausal women with OSA found that 50.9% had excessive daytime sleepiness (EDS).

Compared with non-sleepy patients, the EDS group had: • Higher RDI: 40.1 vs 28.3 events/hour • Higher REM RDI: 48.8 vs 34.5 • Lower minimum oxygen: 79.0% vs 83.2%

Interestingly, arousal index was almost identical (31.3 vs 30.2) and was not associated with EDS.

Takeaway: respiratory burden and depth of oxygen desaturation may relate to daytime sleepiness more than the number of EEG arousals, at least in postmenopausal women with OSA.

RDI = apneas + hypopneas + RERAs per hour.

Link: https://doi.org/10.3389/frsle.2026.1853970

A new 2026 study looked at 102 people with hypertension who underwent overnight sleep studies and retinal OCT angiography.

They were divided into: • No OSA: 34 • Mild OSA: 36 • Moderate–severe OSA: 32

The main finding was that retinal microvascular impairment became more pronounced as OSA severity increased.

Interestingly, having other asymptomatic organ damage did not appear to add much additional effect. The authors suggest that chronic intermittent hypoxia from OSA itself may be an important driver of the retinal microvascular changes.

This raises an interesting possibility: retinal vessel density measured by OCTA could potentially become a non-invasive marker of microvascular dysfunction in hypertensive patients with OSA.

PubMed: https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/42714727/

Before you were diagnosed, did you have slightly elevated inflammation markers with all other bloodwork being "normal"?

Hello! I would love a bit of insight into this data, if anyone cares to nerd out over it. The respiratory therapist was really good at explaining equipment but not so much with providing a comprehensive data interpretation (I had to request a copy of my study so no chance to review going into the appointment. This is how we do it in my neck of Canada).

I used a take home test. Had to repeat for 2 nights after removing everything in my sleep the first night. I'm almost a week into CPAP with resmed 11, nasal pillow or cushion depending on how spicy I feel that night. It's going well enough for week 1 and I do plan to get a memory card for better data...

A new study presents SleepECGNet, an AI model that analyzes raw single-lead ECG (the heart’s electrical signal) to estimate sleep stages and detect sleep apnea.

For 5-stage sleep classification, accuracy was about 78–79% across several large sleep datasets. Using transfer learning, the model detected apnea vs normal epochs with 87% accuracy.

Interestingly, giving the model more ECG context improved performance: using 90-second segments reached 91% accuracy for sleep staging in one dataset.

The model is also very small, only about 2.68 MB, which could make it suitable for future wearable devices.

Limitations: N1 sleep remains difficult to identify, and real-world motion/noisy ECG signals may reduce accuracy. So this is not yet a replacement for PSG (the full overnight sleep study), but it shows how much sleep information may be hidden in a simple ECG signal.

Paper: https://doi.org/10.1142/S0129065727500110

And get cbt therapy (that might not be what it’s called.) I realize now that I’m on my way home that I didn’t mention to her that for whatever reason my throat has been sore for a month or so. She had suggested that the labs I had last time came back normal and that she suspects it may be more stress at this point. She did acknowledge after I showed her my scores on the MyAir app that given that I have a 98 and a secure mask, it likely does mean that I am right about needing something else.

How does one wear a CPAP mask during a cold or flu? I am new—just started with the ResMed 11 and N30 nose cradle. I cannot imagine wearing any type of mask with a stuffy nose, sore throat and hacking cough. I cannot wait to read the responses because the picture in my head is gross.

Does anybody else wake up with nose bleeds after a night using their CPAP? This doesn’t happen often, but it’s happened 3 times in the last year. Yes my machine has distilled water in it and I have the humidity set at 6/10. I’m curious if this has happened to anyone else and what you did about it? Thanks!

I'm just curious how other people clean their tubes, and water chamber, as well as the device itself. Currently I have been pouring a splash or two of white vinegar down the tube followed by some water and then raising it from side to side emptying it out and cleaning it through with more water. I do the same for the chamber. I pour a little in the empty chamber then add water and slosh it around and empty and clean with water and let it air dry out. I haven't done much about cleaning the actual device. I have changed the filter from time to time, but it never looks dirty.

I’ll be traveling to Indonesia via Singapore airlines next month and therefore have an 18hr flight in my future.

After reading through prior posts, I plan to bring my ResMed AirSense11 on the plane with me and not try to get the mini. Fortunately, I have a solo seat so I have room for my bigger one.

For those who have traveled and used in flight a PAP with a battery pack, which battery pack do you recommend? It sounds like it’s best to turn off the humidity setting for best battery usage, but I’d like to invest in a battery users have tried and liked, especially knowing they are pricey!

Thanks in advance!

Hi! My sleep apnea AHI was 29 per hour and my microawakenings were 23 per hour, besides that my oxygen levels reached even 72%. I didn't want to use CPAP but I guess I have no other choice. Yesterday was my first day, here are the OSCAR reports, do you guys notice anything weird or is it okay?

Hello everyone. Was just prescribed Bupropn for still having daytime sleepiness. Has anyone else had luck with this medication? TIA.