In August of 2015 I did a sleep study to confirm what my wife had been telling me for a few years. She was convinced I had sleep apnea and so I spoke with my doctor and got the sleep study ordered. It was an interesting night trying to sleep with people watching and all the cords stuck to me, but within a day I received the results and it confirmed what we had suspected. I had sleep apnea.
I promptly acquired the CPAP machine that they recommended, and it immediately had a dramatic impact on my sleep. I have never been a very good sleeper but the CPAP was huge for me. Not waking up every few minutes tends to help you feel more rested, believe it or not.
Fast forward to early June of 2023 and in the middle of the night the machine ceased providing me with a steady stream of air. I assumed the electricity had gone out but I could still hear the fan in our bedroom. Annoyed, I rolled to check the status of the apparatus and the screen displayed a message informing me that the motor was no longer functional. I ripped the mask off and went back to sleep.
In the morning, I considered my options of moving forward with another expensive machine or seeing if my weight loss had stopped my snoring and apnea. In October of 2019, I weighed 220 pounds. Over the course of the following three years, I had lost more than 130 pounds and was down to 187 pounds. I had previously considered seeing if I still needed the CPAP but it was such a regular part of my sleep routine that I never really acted upon those thoughts.
Not wanting to see what a new CPAP would cost, I decided to see how sleeping without it would go. The first night I was surprised that I really felt the same in the morning other than my mouth was drier than it was while wearing the CPAP. I was also pleasantly surprised to find that my wife wasn't complaining that I had woken her up with my sawing of logs.
The next night, I decided to wear my Samsung Galaxy Watch 4 to monitor my sleep. When I first acquired the watch, I had worn it most nights to track my sleep, but I hadn't monitored my sleep for at least six months. The first night of tracking with the watch showed sleep patterns nearly identical to what I was getting with the CPAP. Unfortunately, when I switched to my Galaxy S22 and installed the Samsung Health app I hadn't turned on the snore detection feature and so I didn't have any information on whether I had snored. The second night of tracking with the detection option on I woke up to information showing me I had four periods of snoring recovered. I got up, used the restroom, and fed the cats and made myself comfortable on the couch to listen to what my phone had recorded. The audio clearly had snoring but with the fan on in the room, it wasn't clear whether it was me or my wife.
Night three I moved into the spare room where the only noise might be the cats pawing at the door. I woke up to no recordings of snoring and once again the sleep patterns recorded by my watch were nearly identical to the ones I had to when I wore the CPAP. I stayed in the spare room two more nights and had the same result. The next few nights my wife was out of town and so I had an extended period to test if these findings were consistent and they were. I have since shared a hotel room with someone when I took my daughter to basketball camp and my roommates were able to confirm that I did not disturb their slumber with nocturnal noisy breathing.
I have now been without the CPAP for a month and I can honestly say that my sleep is just as good as it was with the machine. I can also see a marked difference in the appearance of my face. For more than 7 years I struggled with chapped spots on my face in addition to the lines that would come from having the mask strapped to my head for 6 hours every night.
The health benefits of weight loss are well documented. No one can deny that with reduction in weight your health will improve. I was surprised though by the fact that not only did I not need my CPAP anymore, but that I also had no recordable snoring. I'm a mouth breather, it's something I've been working on during my waking hours as well, but I obviously can't control it while I sleep. I expected that I would still make noise even if my weight loss had eliminated my apnea but I do not snore.
Recently, I acquired some mouth tape for sleeping and this has made my sleep much deeper and I do not wake up with a dry mouth anymore.
Obviously, this might not be the case for everyone but for me weight loss has been a game changer for my sleep. Not only am I sleeping better but I no longer have lines on my face from the mask. While my story probably won't motivate you to lose weight, I hope it helps you to see the benefits of taking care of your health. It affects more than just your appearance or general health. It has an affect on so many different areas of your life.
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