Occasional sleepiness when using TAP device

[casadelane]

I’ve was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea with 22 hypopnea events per hour. I tried CPAP but could not fall asleep with the device. I’ve since been fitted with a TAP (Thornton Adjustable Positioner) device and that has gotten my hypopnea events down to 5 or less per hour. I do feel better but I’m not 100%. I still feel tired on occasions and since I exercise a lot (road cycling/racing) I feel that I’m not getting good recovery time at night. Also when I have a nasal cold, I am REALLY tired just like before I started using the TAP device.

My question to all you is should I see about supplementing my TAP device therapy with CPAP?

Have any of you experienced the same issue (occasional sleepiness) when using a dental appliance like a TAP device?

[Julie]

Hi, and welcome. Yes, many people have ongoing OSA with dental devices, which is why this forum is all about Cpap . We tend to believe that while things like TAP have a place to e.g. deal with snoring that's not accompanied by OSA, or other similar issues, it is otherwise mostly inadequate for the majority of people with documented OSA of anything beyond a diagnosis of "mild" (which usually means you only have a few events, not enough to worry about). But OSA can be progressive, and I would definitely suggest that you either get tested and/or try out a machine, but with proper supervision either from a sleep doctor, or someone here who can walk you through how to test (for what pressure(s) you might need) yourself on an Apap machine vs straight Cpap. Your previous problems with Cpap could easily have been due to the wrong mask, or fitting, and the wrong pressure, so if you can go into more detail about the experience, plus go to your member page, fill out your profile (text tho', not icons) and let everyone see what equipment you had or have, model #'s, mask details, pressures, etc. we can try to help.