CPAP causing Daytime Anxiety

Sorry for this post. As some of you may feel it's unrelated. But I've reguarly used my cpap for over two months now and during this period my daytime anxiety has increased drastically. Moment I wake up I feel super anxious and the feeling remains throughout the day.

Yesterday I hit two months of constant use and the feeling hasn't gone away. Has anyone experienced something similar?

Welcome! I haven't had this experience, but I wonder whether you could say a little more about how things are going for you. Are you pretty comfortable with the CPAP therapy at this point? How are you sleeping these days? What is your AHI? Are you feeling more rested during the day (along with feeling more anxious)?

As a very general matter, using CPAP is a weird experience, and it can provoke anxiety or even panic attacks in some people. Sometimes it just takes a while to get used to it and for your mind and brain to settle down and accept that the CPAP experience isn't something they need to get riled up about.

I agree with Miss Emerita. It seems your body is still trying to adapt and accept the fact that you WILL wear the mask each night. It appears that this may be the final attempt that your body is making to convince you to give up. Tell your mind to NOT give up and that you are going to wear this mask every night. Makes sense? When starting out... your body rejects your wearing the mask all night. After you get used to wearing the mask, you may start looking forward to wearing the mask at night.

Best wishes to you.

Sheriff

Hi fabiwilys84,

If you type 'Havening' and 'anxiety' into Google, you'll get several suggested links, including this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PQcxDIDJDIs

Havening is a new method for dealing with anxiety, developed in the last few years by two American doctors, Ronald Ruden and Steven Ruden – and taught in this clip by another American doctor.

It is drug free. It is brief – ie, it doesn't take months or years. And it is highly effective.

And you can apply the method to yourself. This clip tells you how.

And might I add, I think that sometimes it's relatively unimportant to find out "Why do I feel anxious?" and "What's causing this?" when the treatment is both brief and effective. And IMO, this is one of those times.

Could be your pressure is not quite right or the humidity. This can affect anxiety for me, although everyone is different.

Slightly off topic but the biggest thing that helped my anxiety and low grade depression was discovering Eckhart Tolle and his teachings. He has many videos on YouTube and a few books. Highly recommend him.

hmm...odd because I'm pretty sure I read one of the side effects of sleep apnea is anxiety, but you're describing the opposite (anxiety should be resolved with CPAP, if that were the primary cause). my only thought is perhaps now that you're sleeping properly, now you have more energy than you have for a long time and your body/mind are unsure how to cope. sounds like something to mention to your dr though especially if it's interfering with day to day activities. all the best

Anxiety will often respond to exercise, meditation, or even drugs.
You pick.

x

I am in the same situation as the creator of this thread. I am a male, 58, overweight with an untreated AHI of 56. I have now been using the CPAP for 10 weeks and since the first week my depression/anxiety has increased. I felt great after starting the CPAP as my daytime drowsiness disappeared. My depression is worst in the morning and gradually gets better during the day. I got used to using the CPAP and do not think that using the CPAP is the root of my anxiety, but I do think that the result of using the CPAP is causing my anxiety. That being said I asked my sleep doctor if I could suspend use of the CPAP for 1 month to see if the depression goes away. She agreed as she had no other options to try. Sorry for the long post but I am hoping to find some answers with anyone that might have experienced this. Thank you.

gwood225 wrote: ↑

Tue Apr 27, 2021 12:40 pm

I am in the same situation as the creator of this thread. I am a male, 58, overweight with an untreated AHI of 56. I have now been using the CPAP for 10 weeks and since the first week my depression/anxiety has increased. I felt great after starting the CPAP as my daytime drowsiness disappeared. My depression is worst in the morning and gradually gets better during the day. I got used to using the CPAP and do not think that using the CPAP is the root of my anxiety, but I do think that the result of using the CPAP is causing my anxiety. That being said I asked my sleep doctor if I could suspend use of the CPAP for 1 month to see if the depression goes away. She agreed as she had no other options to try. Sorry for the long post but I am hoping to find some answers with anyone that might have experienced this. Thank you.

I have only used a CPAP for one night, so I wont comment on that. But wouldn't it follow that anxiety takes energy? Energy that you may not have previously had. I know when I am brain foggy and tired, anxiety is the last thing I feel.

Have you considered that as Cpap clears some of the OSA 'fog', other things become more obvious, such as the fact you are depressed or anxious, etc? So many of us were diagnosed with 'depression' prior to Cpap, but found it went away quickly on Cpap, but if you do have 'real' depression, you might want to think about other fixes, whether with meds, or exercise etc.

Hypnosis?

I think it would be very useful to post your charts, because we don't know if the CPAP is being EFFECTIVE. In other words, is the pressure adequate to reduce your apneas? All you told us is that you are using it. What is your AHI?

I was one who always woke up anxious in full "fight or flight mode" since I was a little kid. It took me a few months to adjust to CPAP, but when I really knew it was working was when I woke up feeling so calm I just wanted to lie there and hold on to that feeling as long as I could. It made me recall when I'd wake when I was very young--still in the crib. I'd be calm and comfortable. And realized I hadn't felt that way on waking since I was a toddler, until that first really good morning with CPAP--and very often after that!

My theory of why you are having this anxiety is that perhaps your settings aren't optimized. You could even be having MORE apneas than untreated because the settings are not ideal--could be pressure is too low, could be a wide-open pressure is forcing your machine to chase your apneas, could be many other things. Using Oscar and posting your graphs will help us see if that's at all the explanation. It's just a theory, but I don't see any evidence suggesting it may not explain what's going on.