3 months in, question about alcohol effects on CPAP

[LMDAVE]

I've been using my prescribed APAP machine and setting since December 2015. I've felt much better since then with being able to sleep regularly and not tired during the day. ON weekends is usually when I like to have some drinks (red wine), and it usually occurs at night, but the last couple of Fridays, I had some drink between 7pm to 9-10pm range, went to bed around 11:30-12, and had an episode where I woke up during the night around 3 AM with a high heart beat. I finally breathed well with mask and calmed the rate down but couldn't get back to sleep. I tried but just laid there half asleep and just could fall into sleep. It totally ruined my Saturday where I had to take two separate naps. That was two weeks ago, and the same thing happened last Friday. Woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.

I haven't had this problem during the first 2 and 1/2 months even though I had nights of drinking during that time period. So, is this probably related to the wine consumption? Has anyone else had this effect?

[Wulfman...]

I've been using my prescribed APAP machine and setting since December 2015. I've felt much better since then with being able to sleep regularly and not tired during the day. ON weekends is usually when I like to have some drinks (red wine), and it usually occurs at night, but the last couple of Fridays, I had some drink between 7pm to 9-10pm range, went to bed around 11:30-12, and had an episode where I woke up during the night around 3 AM with a high heart beat. I finally breathed well with mask and calmed the rate down but couldn't get back to sleep. I tried but just laid there half asleep and just could fall into sleep. It totally ruined my Saturday where I had to take two separate naps. That was two weeks ago, and the same thing happened last Friday. Woke up and couldn't get back to sleep.

I haven't had this problem during the first 2 and 1/2 months even though I had nights of drinking during that time period. So, is this probably related to the wine consumption? Has anyone else had this effect?

Well, YOU did and YOU'RE the one using YOUR machine.
Many people have had varying results after consuming "adult beverages" and not everyone reports the same thing.
If it did it for you......TWICE.......you may have a clue.


Den

.

[Sleeprider]

Any individual's response to alcohol with PAP is going to be different. I have some of my lowest AHI when I've had too much red wine. It doesn't mean I sleep that well, but it seems to be no problem as long as I don't dehydrate, which is the recipe for a hangover.

I can't explain your high heartrate, but if repeated experiments yield the same result, then I would avoid that.

LOL, Den just said the same thing!

[robysue]

Did you drink more wine than usual when you had the bad night with you describe?

Did you drink the wine closer to bed time than usual when you have drinks in the evening?

Anything else going on in your life? Any chance you're coming down with a cold/flu? Any chance spring allergies are starting to kick in? Any chance it was just a random "bad night"?

In general, alcohol consumption can make OSA worse, and if you drink more than normal or consume the alcohol closer to bedtime than usual, it can mean that more events get through the CPAP defenses. And because there's some night-to-night variation in the OSA, it's also possible for the affect of alcohol to be more noticeable on one night than on another night.

[LMDAVE]

The drinking on weekend has been something we've been doing regularly, nothing new there. The amount didn't really change, but if my wife and I are playing some games at night or watching a movie before bed we'll normally have drinks. Since what happened two weeks ago, I stopped last week an hour or so before be bed and drank a lot of water, but still had the episode. So, this wasn't something I just started doing. I've always had drinks on the weekend evenings, but it was just these last two weekends that experienced what I did with waking up and not getting back to sleep.

I read somewhere before about throat palates being more relaxed if you had alcohol and CPAP not being as effective, but through all my searching couldn't really find many people talking about it. I do suffer from some stress and anxiety but that has been going on even before getting on CPAP.

So, didn't know if my effect are a mental thing...waking up then developing and anxiety that I wont be able to go back to sleep because of what happened the week before and then causing it to happen. Or if it could be a physical response to CPAP not working the same because of alcohol in system.

[Julie]

You are getting older, and things do change, plus not everything's about Cpap - maybe something else is going on that needs to be checked out.

[Sir NoddinOff]

Everyone is different in their response to alcohol, especially late in the evening. I personally can't tolerate drinking after 6pm and if I do I tend to have very uneven sleep. To fix that, I now have a few beers or wine before dinner at 5:30 (I know, I'm a non-sophisticate) and then one drink with dinner. I fall asleep at about 10:30 so that gives my liver a fighting chance to clear my bloodstream of most of the alcohol. Others on CPAPtalk report that a drink before bed helps them relax but obviously too much is going to mess things up... drunken sleep is generally very unfulfilled and to be avoided. Unfortunately, that's what people did before CPAP; a desperate attempt to get some sleep, be that as it may.

[chunkyfrog]

How many is "a few"?
I would think there might be a problem if, at any point, one stops counting.
---just saying!

[Sir NoddinOff]

How many is "a few"?
I would think there might be a problem if, at any point, one stops counting.
---just saying!

My theory is if you can't remember how many drinks you've had you've stepped over the line. For me a few means 'two'. That means two regular beers before dinner (no 7.5 alc IPAs) plus one more beer with dinner (three beers total). Once in awhile I'll have wine. That's tricky cuz my wife likes two small glasses of wine so I get two extra big glasses which all amounts to a full bottle... sometimes I suffer that night for my indulgence, however I do love a good robust red Like Benjamin Franklin said: Beer (wine) is proof that God loves us and wants us to be happy.

My wife just said B. Franklin didn't say that (maybe CS Lewis did?). Anyway here's what BF did say:
"Behold the rain which descends from heaven upon our vineyards, there it enters the roots of the vines, to be changed into wine, a constant proof that God loves us, and loves to see us happy."

[yippeekia]

Did you look at your numbers in Sleepyhead? That would tell you if your AHI is higher than normal. If it is, you could always adjust your numbers higher or drink less. Alcohol is know to make apnea worse, so it would stand to reason that you wouldn't have optimum therapy with your machine set for "sober" sleep.

[chunkyfrog]

Fermentation is a gift.
Some cultures only allow themselves the delight of fermented dairy. (Yogurt, cheese)
Others enjoy fruit, grain, and even tea, thus blessed by the hand of God.

[Sir NoddinOff]

Did you look at your numbers in Sleepyhead? That would tell you if your AHI is higher than normal. If it is, you could always adjust your numbers higher or drink less. Alcohol is know to make apnea worse, so it would stand to reason that you wouldn't have optimum therapy with your machine set for "sober" sleep.

Hi yipeekia. I use an ASV machine so my AHI numbers are rarely over 1.0. This is because ASV therapy (auto-servo ventilation) just doesn't allow much to slip past it once it's adjusted correctly, which is exactly what ASV is supposed to do. To answer your question: No, I don't really see much of an AHI difference but that doesn't necessarily mean I got a good night's sleep with too much alcohol in my system. Generally I feel more draggy and zoned-out in the morning, maybe a headache.

[Mudrock63]

I don't drink often anymore, but the couple of times I have since starting therapy my AHI has actually been lower than the days around it. Having said that, was still kind of dragging around the next days. Probably due to hydration. In all honesty, I think the therapy reduced hangover effects, since I was oxygenated all night. But it still messes with the quality of my sleep, just not apnea-wise.

[mralaska]

My xPAP history makes it easy to track my response to alcohol indulgence because it coincides with $5 pitchers and free pizza night at the nearest pub. On drink nights my AHI is lower than usual but I almost always wake up at 3.5 to 4 hours of sleep then have trouble falling back to sleep. I can only speculate why I breathe better but alcohol by nature has a depressant affect for four hours followed by an anxious affect for the following eight. This is a common reaction to both depressants and stimulants except it is reversed on the latter, of course.

I did not notice it as much before I started therapy partly because I did not track sleep and partly because I was so messed up and exhausted I did not notice much of anything but there were nights even then that I would wake up four hours after going to bed anxious and unable to return to sleep. Of course, there are nights it happens without drinking also which make the question less simple than it might otherwise be but after three months in I find it possible your body is adjusting to the therapy and allowing it to finally provide its "normal" response to alcohol.