RebeccaR

Hello,

We have heard that some of you have had difficulty posting, commenting, and editing on the forum for the last few days. We apologize for this inconvenience.

As a first step, please try clearing your cookies from your web browser. If you need help with this, you can google "clear cookies" for simple instructions. You can also feel free to contact us- just let us know which web browser you use (ex. google chrome, safari, internet explorer, mozilla firefox) and we can walk you through the steps: support@myapnea.org.

Best of luck!

For evidence-based information about the coronavirus pandemic and sleep apnea, we have compiled some trusted sources. If there are other good sources you have turned to, please share!

-FAQ about sleep apnea and COVID-19: From the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, find trusted answers to questions like, “Do I have a higher risk of getting coronavirus because I have sleep apnea?” or “If I have symptoms of the coronavirus, will using CPAP spread the virus to others?” https://aasm.org/coronavirus-covid-19-faqs-cpap-sleep-apnea-patients/

-Using PAP during COVID-19 illness: Read this info sheet from the American Thoracic Society https://www.thoracic.org/patients/patient-resources/resources/covid-19-and-home-pap-therapy.pdf

-Insomnia and COVID-19: Has the stress and disruptions of the pandemic turned you into an insomniac? From the MyApnea blog and Harvard Health blog, find strategies to promote better sleep during uncertain times. https://myapnea.org/blog/2020/04/strategies-to-promote-better-sleep-in-these-uncertain-times

-Coronavirus and Sleep Medicine: From the American Academy of Sleep Medicine, the new podcast ‘Talking Sleep’ discusses how the pandemic is impacting sleep medicine. https://aasm.podbean.com/

-"Living with Sleep Apnea" Fact Sheet on Covid-19: Our team recently spoke with patients with sleep apnea across the US and asked them what they wanted to know about sleep apnea and Covid-19.

You are all very well informed and adept researchers indeed. I just wanted to make sure you saw the American Academy of Sleep Medicine recommendations and FAQ page for patients. It's actually quite good and fairly detailed, and of course a very trustworthy source for evidence-based information. https://aasm.org/coronavirus-covid-19-faqs-cpap-sleep-apnea-patients/

Thanks for bringing this important topic to the forum.

Hello,

Thank you for bringing this to our attention. We notified our web developer and he was able to fix this over the weekend!

To upload an image, drag and drop the file into the text box. You can double check that it worked by clicking 'preview' above.

Best wishes!

I also wanted to make people aware of the FAQ from the American Academy of Sleep Medicine. This is a reliable source for information about managing sleep apnea during the pandemic: https://aasm.org/coronavirus-covid-19-faqs-cpap-sleep-apnea-patients/

Hello MyApnea!

I wanted to let you know that we have posted two new blogs. The first one is to let you know that the FDA warned about the safety of CPAP cleaning devices that use ozone or ultraviolet light. For more information, check out the blog post: https://myapnea.org/blog/2020/04/fda-questions-safety-of-cpap-cleaners

The second blog is about strategies to promote better sleep in these uncertain times. I know maintaining decent sleep during this stressful period is something I've been working on. I'm sure many others are finding their sleep is affected by the stress and worry of the pandemic. To learn about why you might be feeling this way and some helpful tips, check out the blog post written by Harvard sleep physician, Dr. Bertisch: https://myapnea.org/blog/2020/04/strategies-to-promote-better-sleep-in-these-uncertain-times.

We hope you are all as well as you can be during this uncertain time and that you and your family's are healthy and safe.

In health,

-The MyApnea Team

Nice!

When I used this link, I was able to scroll down to see the whole article. Does that work for you? https://academic.oup.com/sleep/advance-article/doi/10.1093/sleep/zsz274/5613151

My understanding of the article is that the current way that sleep apnea is commonly diagnosed may not include people who have a dangerous level of apneas. Scientists are learning a lot more about complex factors that characterize Sleep Apnea (timing of AHIs, REM vs. non-REM sleep, oxygen desaturation, airway collapsability, arousal thresholds etc.).

They are also learning more about the epidemiology of sleep apnea and asking really important questions such as 'Are all patients with untreated sleep apnea at high risk for cardiovascular disease? or just some? If so, what characterizes the higher risk patients and how can we make sure they get the best treatment?'

So researchers are not looking for new diseases. Rather they are scrutinizing the way the disease has been diagnosed. They are exploring sleep data in new and more granular ways to see if we are actually capturing everyone who is at risk when we use traditional cut-offs (AHI>15).

According to this new research, it may be that AHI scores should be weighted to differentiate between apneas that happen during REM sleep vs. non-REM sleep, since there is growing evidence that sleep apneas during REM sleep are more strongly associated with cardiovascular risks AND women tend to have a large number of apneas during REM (according to the data in this study).

Does that make sense?

And yes Sierra- I agree that medicare and insurance companies drive treatment and changing those standards is hard. But, change is possible. And the field of sleep should at least work to define risky forms and levels of sleep apnea as accurately as possible (and hopefully understand which forms/levels are most dangerous and which are best suited to which treatment approaches). Then, we can start the work of convincing the insurance companies to get on board with the evidence-based definitions. And they might be easily convinced if the data shows that treating sleep apnea differently can save them $$$ down the line!

Some interesting new research has been published about how we recognize and diagnose sleep apnea. For a long time, OSA has had the reputation of being a man’s disease. A new study shows that OSA may be a women’s disease too- we just haven’t applied sex-appropriate methods for diagnosing it. We just published a summary of this new research on the MyApnea Blog! Read more here: https://myapnea.org/blog/2019/12/study-suggests-women-may-be-undertreated-for-sleep-apnea