What did people do before 1980 ?

[BlizzardUK]

I heard cpap was invented in 1980, and by 1985 only 100 people at home had it. What did people do before this time ? I couldn't imagine feeling the way I do without cpap for decades, I wouldn't be able to work or function or drive.

[Matt00926]

Negative pressure devices were used as early as the 1800's. I think they were mostly thoracic body devices and no one used masks like we do now. In the 1950s there were huge problems with Polio and I think that's when positive pressure ventilation devices started really being used. By the 1960s I believe mechanical ventilation research had taken off and devices started being built. and They of course were giant machines and usually required people to go into the hospital for a few days and be treated. And then basically they had to just keep coming back to receive the same treatments over and over.

[Captain Neon]

People did what I did for decades. They adapted and struggled.

I've probably had some degree of sleep apnea for over 20 years. I knew that I snored. I worked night shift for 14 years, and hid my sleep apnea from myself. I thought that my foggy feeling was due to shift work, and attributed my mood to being on a different schedule from others.

I left myself plenty of buffer between the time I came home from work at about 1:00 AM and the time I needed to be at work 3:00 PM. I typically went to bed at 3:00 AM and woke up around noon. Some nights I was extra tired and was in bed as soon as I got home, and other days I woke up as late as 1:30 PM. I sometimes I was in bed for 12 hours.

For 10 years, I worked jobs that were so easy for me that it took very little cognitive ability to outperform my peers. In the last 5 years, my sleep apnea has cost me at least one job. I dozed off during a couple of meetings and my boss never forgot it. Symptoms attributable to poor sleep made it easy to justify elimination of my position over others when the time came to downsize and reassess workloads. I wasn't fun to work with and had few allies to speak up in my defence. If there was need for a scapegoat, I was a ready candidate.

My sleep apnea made it very difficult for me to adjust to any variation in my sleep schedule, and even an adjustment like Daylight Saving Time that most people adjust to by Tuesday took me weeks before I was normal. I was also a surly grump until I started CPAP therapy 6 weeks ago. A smiling happy non-complaining me was a rare occurrence, and it was usually only during a long holiday weekend or planned vacation.

I did my best to avoid people whenever possible, and fought to be socially acceptable. Over the past 7 years, I have struggled in my career and my sleep apnea is at least part of the problem. It has been harder and harder for me to remember things and learn new things. I attributed it to just getting older and a decreasing level of cognitive plasticity. To a certain degree that was true, but sleep apnea did not help.

I'm now much more alert, am better able to remember things, and learn new things. I still find forced social interaction to be a chore, but seem happier when I interact with people and I'm less likely to succumb to the temptation to complain. I find that I am now more patient and empathetic. Before, the best I could muster was apathy. If I cared at all, I would usually be angry.

I also find myself enjoying music more, and seeking out new music to enjoy. For the past several years, I listened to music as a way to keep my brain occupied while driving and usually only to music I was already very familiar with from my high school and college days.

[Jay Aitchsee]

Died younger?

[Wulfman...]

I heard cpap was invented in 1980, and by 1985 only 100 people at home had it. What did people do before this time ? I couldn't imagine feeling the way I do without cpap for decades, I wouldn't be able to work or function or drive.

For some people, it was called a "tracheotomy".

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tracheotomy


Den

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[BlackSpinner]

They died quietly in their sleep.

This was considered a positive thing.

[Wulfman...]

They died quietly in their sleep.

This was considered a positive thing.

Unless they were driving and their passengers were NOT asleep......and screaming as they too headed for their demise.


Den

.

[codinqueen]

Many people suffering sleep apnea probably died in their sleep or had strokes that left some of them wishing they would have died. Some people could no longer swallow, walk, talk, think, do normal activities of daily living, or see because strokes can do a lot of bodily/brain damage. Some people were unable to be rehabilitated after these catastrophic illnesses and ended up in nursing homes, or being cared for by their family if they were unable to afford nursing home/private duty nursing care. Prior to 1980 more people suffering from undiagnosed sleep apnea probably died or were seriously handicapped by strokes/heart attacks.The ones who didn't die suddenly or have crippling heart attacks/strokes probably had a difficult time staying awake for their jobs, and I'll bet many people were injured or killed in auto accidents caused by drivers who fell asleep at the wheel. Drs probably handed out scripts for amphetamines back then for some of the more severely affected patients. Back before 1980 Drs had more autonomy and were not ordered around by the DEA and insurance companies like they are now. Back in 1980 many patients that had full-time jobs also had commercial health insurances provided by their employers at a discount to the employees, that paid 80% of Usual, Customary, & Reasonable medical charges after the patients met lower deductibles. Prior to 1980 there were not many PPOs, and many HMOs were in their infancy. Managed health care has usurped the role of Drs by mandating what drugs and tests are medically necessary and that insurance will reimburse. The DEA/drug laws have also limited what DRs can legally prescribe over the last several years unless the Drs and the patients are willing to jump through some hoops and have enough money to pay high rates for the medical care, tests, and medicine they need but their insurance won't reimburse. Frivolous malpractice lawsuits with large monetary awards have also caused Drs to be a lot more cautious in what they order or prescribe. Just my opinion. Some may not agree. I think people that had undiagnosed sleep apnea before 1980 were very tired, irritable and dangerous, as well as sickly, and could be the reason for many divorces and loss of jobs back then.

[archangle]

The correct answer is "they died quietly in their sleep." Actually most probably died noisily in their sleep due to snoring.

A less smart*ss answer is that they suffered poor health without a good understanding of why. They had less energy. They had a higher risk of stroke and heart attack. Quite a few of them probably did die early.

Unfortunately, the autopsy will rarely say "sleep apnea" as the cause of death. The immediate cause is usually stroke, heart attack, etc. It's very rare for an apnea to simply die from suffocation from apnea.

I think of untreated apnea as being something like being a 3 pack a day smoker.

[chunkyfrog]

A lot of people were considered lazy and worthless, due to the constant fatigue.

[Goofproof]

A lot of people were considered lazy and worthless, due to the constant fatigue.

But not nearly as many as we have nowdays in intitled land or is it Enchanted Land. Jim

[Sleeprider]

This question raises a painful memory for me. My mom had severe sleep apnea and was never treated for it. As a kid, I remember hearing her snore, and remember her spontaneously falling asleep in church while sitting with the choir. She had her first stroke in her early 60s (1988) that took away her speech and memories. She recovered slowly and became "mom" again, and enjoyed her grandchildren. She suffered a fall in 2000 and bled into cavity left by the stroke, and spend two years wasting away in a nursing home before mercifully dying. I'm fairly certain untreated sleep apnea shortened her life, and took much quality away.

I'm glad we have xPAP today, and wish I could have teleported a CPAP back in time. I'm sure many of us have lost loved ones that didn't have the technology we take for granted today. I also have empathy for the many people that need CPAP but cannot or will not use it. They sell their machines on Craigslist, and go on snoring and increasing stroke and heart disease risks, just like the "old days".

[LadyK]

I was reading a article concerning just this very thing a couple weeks ago. I read it online when I was researching Central Sleep Apnea. And just like most people posted before me they (doctors & researchers) are now almost certain that before modern CPAP, people with sleep apnea would die in their sleep. It happened mostly older people in their 70's and 80's and people that were obese. And it still happens today. When a relatively healthy older person just dies in their sleep research has shown that there is a greater chance that not that they died of sleep apnea. The article also gave and example of death as a result of CSA. Say for instance an older woman that seems healthy for her age and did not snore just up and dies in her sleep. The article was saying that there was a very good chance she died as a result of Central Sleep Apnea that she did not know she had. The article also said that unless you have obstructive sleep apnea along with central sleep apnea, you could have central sleep apnea and never know it because you would not snore without OSA. Kinda scary. One last thing the article said that was very interesting. They are now fairly positive that Sudden Infant Death Syndrome is cause by Central Sleep Apnea in very young baby's. We that have OSA are much louder but are more likely to seek help and therefore possibly live longer. If you do not snore but someone has noticed that you have pauses in your breathing while sleeping, you most likely have CSA.

[Guest]

With 80-90% of moderate - severe sleep apnea cases remaining undiagnosed, and overall CPAP compliance of identified patients at about 50% (which does not include those who never even start), in the big scheme of things, nothing's really changed since 1980.

[Guest]

With 80-90% of moderate - severe sleep apnea cases remaining undiagnosed, and overall CPAP compliance of identified patients at about 50% (which does not include those who never even start), in the big scheme of things, nothing's really changed since 1980.

Of course it has!

According to Dement:

Approximately 1% of all obstructive sleep apnea patients are receiving treatment at the present time.

Consequently, given the current treatment milieu and health habits of the population, that number should increase to 0.5% in another 20 years.