Longer therapy beneficial for treating sleep apnoea

Longer nightly use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment allows a large percentage of patients with severe obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) function more normally during the day.Patients with OSA experience numerous episodes in which they stop breathing at night, causing frequent sleep disturbances. Therefore, OSA patients are often deprived of sleep, which hampers their daytime functioning.Researchers from the University of Pennsylvania in Philadelphia studied 149 patients with severe OSA who underwent sleepiness and functional testing before and after 3 months of CPAP treatment. To provide CPAP, the patients wore a facemask through which a device delivered pressurised air to keep the airways open during sleep.Overall, the researchers observed good treatment results that correlated with the duration of CPAP use. Specifically, the number of patients with a normal score on the Epworth Sleepiness Scale increased after up to 4 hours of CPAP. Similarly, the patients' scores on the Sleep Latency Test increased after up to 6 hours of CPAP and scores on the Sleepiness Questionnaire improved with up to 7 hours of CPAP.The results suggest that the odds of normal daily functioning generally increase with longer duration of CPAP use, though some patients achieve normal functioning with relatively limited use of this treatment.