Advice: Continue CPAP or MAD?
I’m a 24 year old male. 5’10 197lbs. I am of a normal build maybe 20% body fat, and I have thicker neck. I used to power lift and do BJJ so my neck is thicker than average.
I was diagnosed with OSA at a moderate level in 2022. 20 AHI. Positional exasperation as well. My dad has severe apnea, my mom has apnea, and so does my brother. So it runs in the family.
I have used CPAP successfully since 2022 and I tolerate it okay. My pressure is at the lowest it can even goes at a 5 and it rarely exceeds 7 when I have an apnea event. My “my air” app says I have like 1.5 events a night at a maximum. This has been my average for months. My pressure originally was higher but it was irritating my sinus and was basically set too high. So I lowered it way down and my pulmonologist saw no issue with it as it was working effectively.
My issue is that when I sleep with cpap I feel much more anxious throughout the next day. Like significantly more neurotic and sometimes anxious.
I wake up feeling weirdly wired and will often crash in the afternoons even when I sleep for 8-9 hours with cpap. I have dark bags under my eyes even though I get regular sleep. I really think the pressure from the CPAP forces me to breathe at a depth/rate that is unnatural for my body and I pay for it downstream in the morning.
Anecdotally: Sometimes when I sleep without CPAP (like last night) where I slept poorly (not just apnea but awake throughout night, cat waking me up etc,)
I will find that I am much calmer the next day. Like my anxiety is nearly gone and I will have energy that last throughout the day even though I feel a bit tired. I won’t have the “wired” feeling and will sometimes feel more mentally sharp. It’s strange. It’s almost like the trade off is worth it occasionally. However if I do a couple nights in a row with no cpap then the bad effects start to stack.
I have been trying to get a sleep study done to get an MAD but there were issues with both take home tests and they want me to do a lab test. The issue is that I am moving away soon and won’t be able to attend the lab anyway. I’m thinking about getting a Snore-RX mouth guard. Has anyone with moderate OSA used one of these successfully? I think it’s the perfect middle ground I need.
Thoughts?