Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug • Hacker News Board

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#121

Post by rowanseymour » Sat, May 23, 2026, 2:38 PM UTC

patrickdavey wrote: post #23

gpt5 wrote: post #2

People should be more aware of the symptoms of sleep apneas - the lack of energy during the day, feeling tired, waking up throughout the night, waking up tired/exhausted, etc. People with untreated sleep apnea have multiple folds higher chances to be depressed, unemployed, and have trouble with basic life functions, in addition to the long term health consequences of depriving your brain from Oxygen. I've suggested 4…

I've tried a CPAP machine for 6 weeks and felt no different and gave up. I think I was a 6 on the scale. I wish it had worked though! Currently I've just given up and embracing feeling relatively tired all the time. I've tried side sleeping devices (woody knows backpack) mandibular advancement splints etc. So hard to tell (I find anyway) to get to a definitive answer

I think one problem is that a lot of sleep doctors are essentially CPAP salespeople and they will just keep pushing that even if you protest that you don't feel any better. I got better answers from an ENT doc who did a Drug-Induced Sleep Endoscopy and told me mechanically why I was not breathing well at night.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#122

Post by connicpu » Sat, May 23, 2026, 3:02 PM UTC

chasebank wrote: post #53

kiddz wrote: post #25

I have severe obstructive sleep apnea -- am 6ft and 210. I wear a CPAP and now swear by it. A couple things to help those who try: 1) Make sure you have a CPAP machine with a water tank so the forced air is moist. For me, if the water runs out, that's when I wake up bc my nose dries. 2) Get a spray saline solution for your nose -- not Afrin or drugs (habit inducing) -- just simple and cheap Arm & Hammer Simply Saline…

Have you tried losing weight and if so, did that help?

The fatigue from sleep apnea makes it more difficult to have productive workouts.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#123

Post by crazyfingers » Sat, May 23, 2026, 3:08 PM UTC

“CPAP treatment is extremely effective, but Horner notes that many people have a hard time sticking with CPAP because they find it uncomfortable and cumbersome.”

The sleep medicine industry uses compliant long term cpap patients as the denominator in order to conclude it’s “extremely effective”. If you stop cpap therapy after a year (or even years!) of it not working, they will blame patient compliance not the machine. The machine manufacturers (who incidentally happen to fund most sleep research) have made a variety of machines and settings, and thus there is always another setting to adjust or device to try before concluding cpap won’t help. The assumption is that it’s “extremely effective” and thus, all failures are attributed to compliance. “You just need to find a better doctor to help with the titration”, or “you need a different type of mask”, or “turn off the autoset and up the pressure”, or “it can takes years to adapt to the machine and see improvement”, or my favorite “you may feel much worse and get very little sleep but the science says you need cpap, even if it’s not helping the apnea and maybe even making it worse.” Indeed, the research literature show cpap is potentially iatrogenic, inducing or increasing (central) sleep apnea in some patients. The solution the industry has marketed, a different type of cpap device for CSA called asv, about twice the cost of a regular cpap, actually increased mortality in a major trial iirc. So yeah, if you don’t give up after years and dozens of machines and doctors and weekly titration appointments and none of that helping at all and maybe even making the apnea worse or even killing you (if you have HF, the main cause of CSA, then yes, cpap is “extremely effective” or there wouldn’t be a multibillion dollar business behind it propped up by insurers who can presumably use cpap patient non-compliance to deny future insurance claims related to the cardiovascular system or metabolic dysfunction.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#124

Post by dgellow » Sat, May 23, 2026, 3:17 PM UTC

y-curious wrote: post #83

shermantanktop wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having been down this path, it’s evident to me that the US has built up a sizable medical equipment industry around CPAP machines and their supplies. The sleep doctors who prescribe them don’t have many alternatives, so it’s the normal treatment they hand out. So it’s not a surprise that a casual mention of sleep quality ended with a CPAP machine rented by the month. It’s kind of what happened to me.

I’m always on HN talking about myofunctional therapy (my mom is a practitioner in NYC). Recommend looking into it in addition to losing weight as treatment.

First time I see that term

„Oral myology plays also an important role in the management of patients with sleep breathing disorders and snoring where oropharyngeal exercises were found to reduce the severity and primary symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea. Poor positioning of the tongue affects breathing and allows a series of events to occur that can affect the orofacial complex. Patients with sleep apnea and other breathing difficulties usually have decreased tone and mobility in the cheek, tongue, lip, and soft palate, and sensory alterations due to a tendency to engage in mouth breathing rather than nasal breathing. In treatment of sleep apnea, oral myology therapy involves a series of exercises designed to improve tongue position and tongue function for a better control of the extrinsic tongue muscles and place the tongue in a ‘‘proper posture during function and at rest.’’“

From https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oral_myology#Sleep_apnea_and_s...

I will need to look into it, I’ve been thinking about getting a cpap for a while but they seem too noisy and annoying to maintain

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#125

Post by procone » Sat, May 23, 2026, 3:48 PM UTC

tedk-42 wrote: post #97

procone wrote: post #74

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You have no idea what you're talking about and it shows by what you choose to type. It's not exclusively caused by fitness or lack thereof. A cursory Google search would show you this. It's not "breathing at night", it's literally suffocating in your sleep. This place used to be full of intellectuals. It's a real shame.

Wow you sound very defensive. If it's not obvious I meant breathing while sleeping at night in a sleep apnea discussion, I think you need to analyse your own internal bias and possible self-hate. I'm very sure i have sleep apnea now as i wake up literally in panic where i'm not breathing + have a full bladder and need to go a few times a night (which i've read as a kidney response with sleep apnea). As i said this al…

Gross.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#126

Post by Mistletoe » Sat, May 23, 2026, 4:12 PM UTC

an0malous wrote: post #29

I went through the whole process of seeing an ENT, using the machine for the at-home sleep study so insurance would give me a CPAP, then not being able to sleep with a CPAP, and over the course of a couple years I fixed my sleep apnea by fixing my posture and breathing. If you have forward head posture or are not used to breathing through your nose, you might also benefit from this. I think it’s kind of crazy that we…

Did you get a second sleep study after your breathing changes to confirm it fixed it?

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#127

Post by jurgenburgen » Sat, May 23, 2026, 4:12 PM UTC

tayo42 wrote: post #18

anyfoo wrote: post #10

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, but I've met people who think it's "normal" to wake up tired and exhausted even after multiple (or even many) nights of sufficient sleep, time-wise. I remember one person who thought waking up tired is just part of being an adult? The original comment said "multiple folds higher chances to be depressed, unemployed", for me that's a bit like saying that being on fire has a very high chance to make you depressed…

Waking up tired could be caffeine addiction too, which I think most adults are addicted to

I’m addicted to caffeine and don’t wake up tired. Maybe you have sleep apnea.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#128

Post by jonhohle » Sat, May 23, 2026, 4:24 PM UTC

patrickdavey wrote: post #23

gpt5 wrote: post #2

People should be more aware of the symptoms of sleep apneas - the lack of energy during the day, feeling tired, waking up throughout the night, waking up tired/exhausted, etc. People with untreated sleep apnea have multiple folds higher chances to be depressed, unemployed, and have trouble with basic life functions, in addition to the long term health consequences of depriving your brain from Oxygen. I've suggested 4…

I've tried a CPAP machine for 6 weeks and felt no different and gave up. I think I was a 6 on the scale. I wish it had worked though! Currently I've just given up and embracing feeling relatively tired all the time. I've tried side sleeping devices (woody knows backpack) mandibular advancement splints etc. So hard to tell (I find anyway) to get to a definitive answer

Depending on what’s going on, have your iron levels checked as well. I was tired all of the time and two doctors diagnosed sleep apnea and put me on a cpap. Didn’t help. I had to take hour long naps every day.

A friend of my wife suggested a doctor and he said that even though my iron levels were in the normal range, people with restless leg syndrome (which I’ve had my whole life) often have sleep issues and benefit from iron supplements.

Within days of starting taking them my tiredness went away. I went from being tired every day for nearly two years to maybe taking a handful of naps for fun in the last three years. Really life changing.

My PCP didn’t understand why I’d be taking iron, but accepts that it works. My sleep charts still aren’t great. Little to no deep sleep, but CPAP didn’t help with that either.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#129

Post by gushogg-blake » Sat, May 23, 2026, 4:34 PM UTC

Article says sleep apnea is caused by muscles collapsing in the upper airway, but an overlooked cause is structural deficiency in the bones of the midface.

https://news.stanford.edu/stories/2020/07/toll-shrinking-jaw...

I realised I was affected by this in 2023 and have been researching it and trying to spread the word about it since.

Re: Sleep research led to a new sleep apnea drug

#130

Post by frankohn » Sat, May 23, 2026, 4:40 PM UTC

Just to share my experience. I think I was beginning to develop sleep apnea: I was waking up suddenly with an awful feeling of something terrible happening for no reason. The most terrible experience was waking up in the middle of the night with a sensation of dread I couldn't explain, and it took me half an hour to calm down.

More generally, since I was young, I always slept part of the night with my mouth open and woke up in the morning with a terribly dry mouth.

Now I have solved my problem with two simple things, without any medication: during the day, I am always careful to breathe only through my nose (except during intense physical effort), and at night, I just use mouth tape to keep my mouth closed all night long.

Since I started using the tape on my mouth, I sleep well and I no longer experience nighttime panic (due to apnea?). At the beginning, I was scared of having the tape keep my mouth closed, but I very quickly got used to it and now I barely notice it.