I Don't Like My CPAP Device: Can Sleep Therapy Help?

Nearly 40 million Americans suffer from sleep apnea, a chronic sleep disorder that interrupts your breathing while you sleep. While it might not sound like a big deal, sleep apnea can cause serious complications, increasing your risks of high blood pressure, heart attacks, strokes, and heart failure.

Many patients successfully manage their sleep apnea with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), a technique that involves delivering a steady stream of air to help keep your airways open. 

The problem: CPAP therapy can be uncomfortable for some people, causing anxiety that interferes with sleep.

At Atlanta Insomnia and Behavioral Health Services, our team helps women and men get comfortable with CPAP using specialized cognitive behavioral sleep therapy (CBT-I). If you’re using CPAP, here’s how CBT-I can help you get the most from your therapy.

The basics of CPAP

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) happens when your airway muscles relax during sleep. In turn, relaxation causes the airways to collapse temporarily, leading to very brief breathing interruptions — often so brief, you don’t even realize they’re happening. 

Interruptions can happen hundreds of times during a single night’s sleep. 

Often considered the gold standard for OSA treatment, CPAP uses a special machine to deliver a steady stream of air that helps hold your airways in an open position. The air is delivered via a mask that’s attached via straps.

While CPAP can definitely reduce or even eliminate breathing interruptions in people with OSA, there’s no denying that the device itself can cause some discomfort or nervousness for some people who use it. 

These problems can make it hard to get a good night’s sleep, diminishing the benefits of using a CPAP device in the first place.

How CBT-I enhances CPAP

Sleep therapy isn’t intended to replace CPAP as a treatment for sleep apnea. But if you’re having problems with CPAP, like anxiety, insomnia, or feelings of claustrophobia, CBT-I can definitely help. 

CBT-I uses techniques to identify the issues that are making it difficult for you to get a good night’s sleep while using CPAP. For many people, that means dealing with anxiety about CPAP or about their OSA diagnosis and its impact on their health. 

CBT-I teaches you ways of reframing your thought processes and supporting healthier thought patterns to alleviate anxiety that can lead to insomnia and other sleep disorders.

Our team can help you learn special relaxation techniques that work hand in hand with CPAP, reducing tension, increasing your comfort level, and helping you fall asleep faster. We can also incorporate exposure therapy to help you gradually get used to the device.

Finally, we help you develop your own personalized sleep routine based on your habits and preferences to set the stage for comfortable, restful sleep that benefits your breathing and your overall wellness.

Make the most of your CPAP

If you have sleep apnea, CPAP can dramatically reduce associated health risks by helping you stay comfortable and relaxed while you sleep. 

To learn more about CBT-I and how it can help you get the most from your CPAP therapy, request an appointment online or over the phone with our team at Atlanta Insomnia and Behavioral Health Services in Decatur, Georgia, today.