OSA + CPAP + booze = ?

[bavinck]

Great post, John, just great. Thanks for that.

[Sheriff Buford]

I've been keeping a "fish-eye" on this thread and I can already see where this post is going... Alright everyone.... hands up against the wall and spread em'! Do you haver anything that will poke or cut me? mmm? And don't give me that "that's not mine" or "I don't know how that got there" or "I've never seen that in my life" or "you go the wrong person" or - last but not least... "what did I do?"

Sheriff

[bavinck]

I've been keeping a "fish-eye" on this thread and I can already see where this post is going... Alright everyone.... hands up against the wall and spread em'! Do you haver anything that will poke or cut me? mmm? And don't give me that "that's not mine" or "I don't know how that got there" or "I've never seen that in my life" or "you go the wrong person" or - last but not least... "what did I do?"

Sheriff

Sheriff,
For the record, I did not have that beer last night and I did sleep wonderfully.

[JohnO]

And don't give me that "that's not mine" or "I don't know how that got there" or "I've never seen that in my life" or "you go the wrong person" or - last but not least... "what did I do?"

Followed closely by, "that taillight is out." "No it isn't." * Smash with billy club * "Sure it is."

[Starscream]

I get drunk most every Saturday night. I have used my mask and not. I didn't really notice a difference. I don't think that one night a week would matter much would it?

[bavinck]

To do my part, I am seeing my sleep doc for a follow up post titration on Jan 3. I will ask him about alcohol and report back.

[old dude]

I always thought that it was very well known that alcohol consumption would worsen OSA. I noticed that on my own over 40 years ago.

Not so?

[JohnBFisher]

It definitely tends to make my apnea worse. As a result, I tend to drink moderately (two or three beers is my upper limit). Or if necessary, I stay awake for a few hours to sober up before going to sleep.

[Goofproof]

Being drunk not a problem, once 1966, 190 medical alcohol, and orange juice 50-50, legs quit working, lesson learned. Now 1 beer, two glass wine limits.

I won't be blowing a 3.0 and killing four people with my truck, my parents couldn't afford 10 years in Club Med for rehab! Isn't the Court System in the U.S. wonderful, it's the best system you can buy! Jim

[robysue]

I always thought that it was very well known that alcohol consumption would worsen OSA. I noticed that on my own over 40 years ago.

Not so?

Untreated OSA? Sure, even a small amount of alcohol just before bed might make untreated OSA somewhat worse. It can certainly make a whole bunch of other things somewhat worse. And a lot of alcohol is likely to make untreated OSA a whole lot worse, just like it make a whole bunch of other things a whole lot worse.

But the thing is: Even with a straight CPAP machine that's properly adjusted there's usually enough of cushion on the pressure to take care of a "bad" night for the untreated OSA. And an APAP can always adjust the pressure to a somewhat higher than level so the median and 95% pressure levels may wind up being greater than they usually are.

So if you are sleeping with the PAP machine and a moderate amount of alcohol in your system(as in one or two drinks and not right before bed), I think that at most you're going to see a modest increase in your treated AHI. In other words, if your a treated AHI is usually in the 1.0-3.0 range, having a beer with dinner might bump that treated AHI up a notch or two to the 4.0-6.0 range for the night, but it is not likely to increase your treated AHI up into the 10-15 range of mild-to-moderate untreated OSA.

But if you get skunk drunk, then yeah, I could see how your treated AHI might manage to increase substantially. But the OP wasn't talking about getting skunk drunk. He was talking about 3 or 4 drinks per week, which works out to about one drink every other night or so.

And it's important to maintain some sense of living a normal life even if you are on PAP therapy. And giving up having a beer or a glass of wine now and then with dinner seems like making one too many compromises in pursuit of a nightly AHI = 0.0 in my humble opinion.