Exagerrated adrenaline surges from sleep apnea

I’m curious if anyone can share their personal experience with anxiety and or exaggerated adrenaline surges in day-to-day life before and after starting CPAP therapy.

Is sleep apnea strongly linked to anxiety? What was it like for you—how severe were your symptoms, and how much did things change after beginning CPAP?

For context with surges, I’m talking about situations where the body reacts with way too much adrenaline to things that aren’t really a big deal—like having an argument with a friend; or having a lot of anxiety before a meeting with your boss or going on a first date with someone new.

I’ve only been on CPAP for a few days, but I’ve already noticed a huge difference: my anxiety has dropped significantly, and those exaggerated adrenaline responses are fading quickly. It honestly feels like a lot of what I thought was “anxiety” might have actually been related to untreated OSA.

Has anyone else experienced something similar? Did CPAP therapy reduce or even resolve your anxiety?

Many articles note the connection:

"When the body experiences frequent sleep disturbances, it produces more cortisol, the stress hormone. Elevated cortisol levels can contribute to anxiety. By improving sleep patterns, CPAP therapy helps regulate cortisol levels, leading to reduced stress and anxiety."
https://www.jeffersonpharmacy.net/blogs ... ce-anxiety

However, some people (including me) have counerintuitively noted a short-term increase in anxiety with the initiation of successful PAP treatment, an increase that can occur before the hormone levels eventually find their natural stasis over time. After all, some of us had quite severe undiagnosed OSA for many years, and it can take the body/brain a good while before it figures out it doesn't have to keep a large store of panic juice at the ready to jar us awake many times a night just to keep us breathing. The trick can be holding on for that ride and staying the course while ensuring PAP pressures are optimal for all sleep instead of merely meeting compliance/adherence definitions for PAP use at any old pressure.

So, I believe that individual experiences can have a lot of variations, depending on individual circumstances and comorbidities.

funnyman26400 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 19, 2025 3:22 am

I’ve only been on CPAP for a few days, but I’ve already noticed a huge difference: my anxiety has dropped significantly, and those exaggerated adrenaline responses are fading quickly. It honestly feels like a lot of what I thought was “anxiety” might have actually been related to untreated OSA.

This is typical. The sad thing is so many people are sent to psychiatrists and mental health counselors when they really need to be sent to sleep doctors.

See: https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC4061640/ among many other studies.

In further support of Granny's post:

https://www.apa.org/monitor/2022/07/ce-sleep-disorders

It's honestly incredible how drastically sleep apnea can affect your anxiety the next day and i think what's even worse is how old most are when finally diagnosed; like all that time feeling like you're going crazy but it's the sleep apnea

funnyman26400 wrote: ↑

Fri Sep 19, 2025 3:22 am

Is sleep apnea strongly linked to anxiety?

IYAM, while it's interesting to ponder the role of adrenalin surges and cortisol levels in sleep apnea, without sophisticated testing you really can't get much past the Ponderment Stage.

However, depending on the sleep study or studies that you got, there might be some reasonable evidence to show why there is improvement in anxiety symptoms. Specifically:

Sleep apnea is usually more severe during REM periods, resulting in disturbed and/or decreased REM. If you review what happens to folks with reduced REM (especially those who get blown out of REM with obstructive events) and how REM can be normalized with successful xPAP administration, you may find a more obvious explanation for your improvement.

I noticed it most when driving. For some reason, it really freaks me out to be in the far left lane with opposing traffic or a solid barrier on my left-hand side. This makes bridges and tunnels very anxiety producing as well. It was about 1000 times worse before treating my OSA with CPAP. Now it still bothers me, but I don't go into full panic mode anymore.