Living with Sleep Apnea: Steps You Can Take for Better Sleep and Health
Who doesn’t love a sound night’s sleep? Good sleep can start you on your way to flourish in life by helping you achieve goals, feel productive at home and work and have a fulfilling social life. Often times, several things can get in the way of good, healthy sleep. Lifestyle choices, environmental disruptions, and even serious medical conditions including sleep disorders make the list.
Millions of Americans live with undiagnosed and untreated sleep disorders. These conditions don’t just keep many of us from getting enough of the quality sleep we need. They also can have very real health consequences.
Sleep Apnea: It’s a Serious Threat to Public Health
Sleep apnea is one of the most common sleep disorders. An apnea occurs when your breathing pauses during sleep—sometimes for ten seconds or more. Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is when some feature of a person’s head or neck blocks their airway during sleep, causing them to stop breathing and gasp for breath throughout the night. People with OSA don’t just get poor, disrupted sleep. They also can feel tired, sleepy, and unfocused during the day. This puts them at higher risk for a drowsy driving crash when they’re behind the wheel and for having an accident on the job.
National Sleep Foundation (NSF) is concerned about the impact of undiagnosed and untreated sleep apnea on our nation’s health. Sleep apnea is a serious public health issue that affects tens of millions of Americans. With support from Inspire Medical Systems, Inc., NSF conducted a survey to learn more about how Americans view the severity of sleep apnea and discover opportunities to increase diagnosis and treatment of the disorder. New findings from the Understand Sleep Apnea Survey show that nearly 29 million Americans suspect they have sleep apnea. Even more alarming, one in three adults who say they’re diagnosed with the disorder go untreated. Untreated sleep apnea is linked to other serious health risks, including high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, cognitive decline, and depression.
Why Knowing Matters: Sleep Apnea is a Serious Medical Condition
Nearly 32 million adults don’t view sleep apnea as a serious medical issue that requires treatment. On top of that, only one in four adults can identify a few of the health consequences of untreated sleep apnea.
Estimates show a staggering 45 million adults would prefer not to know if they had the condition. So, there’s still a lot people can learn to help them change their attitudes and take action if they or someone close to them has sleep apnea. A good starting point is to understand the options people have today to help get diagnosed and treated.
Understanding Treatment Options for Sleep Apnea
Many people know about the most common sleep apnea treatments. Continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy is the most common and well-known treatment, where a bedside machine provides a steady flow of air through a nosepiece or mask to help keep a person’s airway open during sleep. Of course, there’s also lifestyle changes that include weight loss, changes to your sleeping position, and healthy sleep behaviors. There are even treatment options that can fit in the mouth to help keep the airway open during sleep, like custom fit dental appliances.
Unfortunately, 4 in 10 adults can correctly identify just 50% or fewer of the treatment options for sleep apnea. Medications, surgical options, and implantable devices also are available but are the least known treatment options.
What’s encouraging is nearly eight in 10 Americans say they would prioritize treatment if diagnosed with sleep apnea. So, it’s time to help more people get the diagnosis they need and understand the treatments are available to them. When people know more, they can make the best choice for them with the help of their healthcare professional.
The list of approaches available to treat sleep apnea continues to grow, including newer solutions that can help people who haven’t benefitted from other established types of treatment.
Inspire® therapy is the name of the FDA-approved implantable treatment for people with moderate to severe OSA who have tried and failed CPAP. It is a surgically implanted device placed by your collarbone that delivers gentle electrical pulses to your tongue muscles to help keep your airway open, so you can breathe more regularly while you’re sleeping.
Becoming Your Best Slept Self®
NSF and Inspire will continue to collaborate to raise awareness of the health consequences of untreated sleep apnea. And we will seek to address barriers and opportunities that can help improve diagnosis and treatment of the disorder. This aligns with NSF’s promise to help anyone and everyone be their Best Slept Self®. Sometimes that means seeking help from a medical professional if you suspect you have a sleep disorder, like sleep apnea. Getting diagnosed with a prescription for an effective treatment is an important step to improving your sleep and health. Controlling your sleep apnea through lifestyle changes, medical treatments and good sleep habits can give you the chance to flourish and live the life you want to live.
This content was produced independently by the National Sleep Foundation and supported by Inspire Medical Systems, Inc., a Platinum sponsor of the 2025 Sleep Awareness Week® campaign. Sponsored content is educational and not intended to promote products or services or make medical claims.
Inspire Medical Systems, Inc. is dedicated to elevating and redefining the standard of care for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA).