Relationship between consumption of alcohol and sleep apnea

[dbebz]

Hello everyone. Hope you’re doing well.

I was just wondering if anyone knew (or had stats) regarding how alcohol affects oxygen desaturation and AHI. I recently received some sketchy medical advice where my doctor told me to “drink some alcohol and sleep on your back” for the at home sleep study. I had an AHI of 52 and many desaturations. That night I had what I would say is sleep that’s at least 5 times worse than I usually do.

I seemed testing for sleep apnea because I’ve been told by people that I sound like I occasionally choke in my sleep. I realized after the fact that the majority of these incidents was when I drink and if I’m on my back.

When I sleep on my side and don’t drink, I managed to sleep through the night and don’t feel exhausted. Just mildly tired. I received a second opinion from another doctor and he said it was “very peculiar advice” to be told to drink and sleep on my back for the sleep study. He claims that it could vastly affect your fat to day sleep apnea results so he recommended I do the study again, which I will be doing.

Just wondering if any of you have heard of this before and what you think about this situation. I can tell the signals that my body gives me. Day to day, I sleep relatively well and barely feel tired at all. That sleep study I felt like I was hit by a truck!

And just to specify, the alcohol consumption was near bedtime and I made an effort to sleep on my back. I am a 27 year old male, normal body mass index, and have some medical issues. It looks like I have post nasal drip which may be aggravating my vocal chords causing a cough and occasional breathlessness, as well as possibly a deviated septum (ENT appointment in 2 weeks!)

[khauser]

That is very peculiar advice, though I've heard of a few other instances that are similar.
Alcohol and sleeping on your back both make obstructive sleep apnea worse. But if that is not your every day behavior then the only reason might be to be sure you were diagnosed with osa for some reason.

Still, that would be sketchy at best.

If it were me I would fire that doctor...

[Julie]

No - the doctor was right! They wanted to get a 'worst case scenario' on the test to see the outside parameters of his apnea - it's done all the time (not telling people to drink, necessarily, but also not to do the things that make apnea 'best'.

[dbebz]

If I gave myself a daytime sleepiness rating from 1-10, my “normal” day I am maybe a 3/10 sleepiness. The night in particular I felt 8/10 sleepy. It is not common for me to drink. I’ve been told by many doctors that it isn’t fair to diagnose someone like this.

For example, would it be possible to have mild or moderate sleep apnea instead of the severe I scored? If so, then wouldn’t it make sense to just abstain from late-night drinking, sleep on my side, and other lifestyle effects? Is it possible that I only get into the moderate/severe range when I drink heavily? (Which I RARELY do).

The other doctor I spoke to, as well as some journal articles, suggest alcohol consumption close to bedtime can severely impact apnea and desaturation events. And I can feel it in my body. How can I be 29 days of a month feeling quite good, barely tired at all, then on 1 day of the month drink a lot and feel horrific and not sleep all night, and then you can justify CPAP 30 nights a month? That to me sounds like odd advice.

[dbebz]

I also want to mention that this is in no way trying to “get out” of having to do CPAP. I’ve felt worse on CPAP this month that beforehand (because I keep waking up and end up sleeping less) but I am willing to continue with it as long as it is properly medically indicated.

[Pugsy]

Well.....I have heard of some stupid ideas and that one ranks near the top.
Alcohol messes with sleep stages for one thing and could potentially cause a person to not get into sleep stages where OSA might be worse ...like REM.
https://www.sleepfoundation.org/article ... -and-sleep
I was told specifically NOT to drink prior to the sleep study that I had done in a sleep lab setting.

I can see getting a "worst case scenario" thing but unless someone routinely drinks a lot and regularly...it's not a normal case thing.
The sleeping on your back part...yeah...that's common because often OSA is worse when we are on our backs but even then it isn't always a given. My OSA wasn't any different between side sleeping or on my back...but in REM stage sleep my OSA was 5 times worse and I was on my side when I got into REM.

If you only feel like crap after you drink the night before..... don't drink.
It is very possible that you are just getting crappy sleep quality explained in the article above.

It is also possible that you might have a mild to moderate OSA thing going on and the alcohol and back sleeping does worsen it...and you really don't want to ignore that possibility. It will eventually catch up with you.
Repeat the sleep study but do it in your normal sleeping position without alcohol muddying up the results.

[Julie]

Ok. was wrong about the booze... but the back sleeping was valid.

[dbebz]

Thanks everyone for all of your replies, it is much appreciated. I think back sleeping does make SOME difference for sure, but the alcohol definitely makes an impact. I just can’t understand how I can go from 52 events per hour during sleep study, having several alcoholic beverages, repeatedly waking up and feeling like a truck hit me the rest of that day, to what my regular day is where I sleep 7 hours and barely feel sleepy and can function normally. That’s why I’m interested to see my AHI.

[dbebz]

Does anyone have any personal stories on how much AHI goes up while drinking?

[betam4x]

Does anyone have any personal stories on how much AHI goes up while drinking?

mine goes down, but I suspect that I don't make it into REM sleep.

[dbebz]

That’s very interesting. The premise and theory makes sense, but also the aspect of how alcohol is a depressant makes sense in terms of increasing sleep apnea. If appears many studies suggest worsened sleep apnea from the consumption of alcohol, but I can definitely see what you mean in terms of REM sleep.

[khauser]

It might go down once you have treatment, but without treatment there's a good chance it goes up. And if a person REALLY over consumes they may not wake up as fast to get a breath, or if very unfortunate, may not wake up at all. Not trying to scare anyone, and this is probably serious abuse and/or combined with medication.

[chunkyfrog]

Interesting topic . . .
(((What am I doing with this corkscrew?)))

[zonker]

Interesting topic . . .
(((What am I doing with this corkscrew?)))

hopefully, not plunging it into the bullfrog!

[Dog Slobber]

Interesting topic . . .
(((What am I doing with this corkscrew?)))

hopefully, not plunging it into the bullfrog!

Perhaps she's still in the training not to flinch stage.