Can Sleep Apnea Be Cured, or Only Managed?

Waking up gasping, being nudged by your partner during the night when snoring, feeling drowsy during the day, being unable to focus…These are all some of the consequences of sleep apnea. After a diagnosis, it's reasonable to wonder can sleep apnea be cured?  The short answer is: Sometimes, but it depends on the underlying cause and what type of sleep apnea you have. 

Fortunately, even if the sleep disorder can “only” be managed and not cured, management means a lot for your health, quality of life, and day-to-day energy. In this article, learn if sleep apnea can be cured, what long-term management looks like, and the next steps you can take to confirm a diagnosis and build the right treatment plan.

Can sleep apnea be cured?

For most adults, sleep apnea is managed rather than cured. However, if the underlying cause of sleep apnea can be resolved with treatment, then the sleep disorder may be cured. 

Sleep apnea means that, during sleep, you have frequent episodes of apnea (a brief pause in breathing) and hypopnea (shallow breathing), according to the Journal of Medical Internet Research. There are two main types of sleep apnea: obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) and central sleep apnea (CSA). The majority of sleep apnea cases are OSA, which means there is a repeated narrowing or full collapse of the airway, blocking airflow into the lungs. Central sleep apnea is a dysfunction of the central nervous system, when there are problems with the brain signalling the respiratory muscles to breathe.

Sleep apnea has wide-ranging health consequences, which we’ll address below. This is why diagnosis and a plan for managing it is so important. 

There are different types of sleep apnea, including central sleep apnea and obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). OSA is the most common type of sleep apnea, and it’s one of the most common sleep disorders, affecting one out of three adults in the U.S., according to the journal Respiratory Medicine.

An at-home sleep study can test for OSA. Here’s more about how to get a diagnosis so you can get on the road to treatment faster.

Cured, resolved, or managed: What's the difference?

All these words may sound similar, but they have different meanings:

• Cured: A cure means to heal or restore health, per the National Cancer Institute.

• Resolved:  Treatment has resolved symptoms and decreased markers of the disease to an acceptable level, but it may come back without continued treatment. 

• Managed: You have a chronic condition (meaning one expected to be life-long) and you use a comprehensive treatment plan to minimize the effects of a disease, improving quality of life, and reducing health care costs, per HealthCare.gov. 

You might hear these terms applied to sleep apnea, and they may all apply based on type of sleep apnea, cause, and treatment.

That said, the words used to describe this — cure, resolve, or manage — can get sticky. “If you consider wearing glasses a cure for nearsightedness, in a sense yes, it can be cured by wearing a breathing machine at night,” says sleep neurologist Meredith Broderick, MD. “If you mean one treatment, and then it is gone, [it’s] less likely but possible depending on the case,” she says.

What is more important than the terminology is getting a diagnosis, exploring the underlying causes of your sleep apnea, and then developing a treatment plan to address it. Whether sleep apnea is curable or not depends on many factors, and is not a guarantee. 

When sleep apnea can actually go away

Effective treatment can help sleep apnea go away if there is a physical underlying cause to sleep apnea that can be “fixed.” 

For example, one’s anatomy can cause sleep apnea. Someone can have large tonsils that block the airway during sleep (some tonsils even get close enough that they are “kissing”), causing apnea. A tonsillectomy is a surgery to remove the tonsils. While tonsillectomy is one treatment for children with large tonsils who have OSA, research in the Journal of Clinical Medicine points out that surgery cures 57% of adults with OSA and large tonsils. It’s possible to have more than one anatomical risk factor in addition to tonsil size, such as increased BMI, a large neck circumference, nasal obstructions, or others.

In addition, OSA may go away with weight loss. Obesity (a BMI of 30 or higher) is a major risk factor for OSA, raising the odds of the condition nearly fivefold compared with a BMI under 25, according to a meta-analysis of nearly 13,000 adults in eClinical Medicine. People who have obesity may have more fat around their tongue and upper airway, which means that their upper airway (needed for clear breathing) can more easily collapse at night; abdominal obesity may also impair lung volume, further impacting nighttime breathing, the research above explains. For some, weight loss is transformative for their health when it comes to OSA. 

That’s where weight loss medications may come in. “I do see patients who lose weight (especially in the era of tirzepatide) who cure themselves. Although it might only be temporary since OSA is multifactorial,” says Dr. Broderick. Indeed, tirzepatide, under the brand name Zepbound, is an FDA-approved treatment for adults with moderate-to-severe OSA and obesity. According to the drug manufacturer, this treatment “improves” (which is different from cures) OSA.

Clinical trials like this one published in The New England Journal of Medicine found that tirzepatide treatment for one year reduced the number of apneas and hypopneas by about 25 “events” per hour compared to a reduction of just 5 in the placebo group. Maintaining weight loss and possibly staying on tirzepatide long-term could mean resolving OSA symptoms for some people, but regaining weight may bring symptoms back.

The many risk factors of obstructive sleep apnea

Treating sleep apnea means taking a look at all of the risk factors that could impair your breathing at night. You might not be able to address them all — some can’t be changed — but a well-rounded treatment plan will consider the risk factors below:

• Enlarged tonsils and adenoids

• Obesity or abdominal obesity

• Older age

• Male

• Sleeping on your back

• Alcohol use or smoking

• Using sedatives

• Underlying conditions like heart disease, stroke, diabetes, and neurological disorders

What effective management looks like (and why it's a good outcome)

The ability to manage sleep apnea is the goal — rather than curing the sleep disorder outright. 

Why? This is what will improve your current and future health. Untreated OSA is associated with heart disease, stroke, metabolic syndrome, type 2 diabetes, and early mortality, per research in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine. There are also general benefits of feeling better. “Treatment can also improve quality of life by eliminating headaches, increasing sleep consolidation, increasing daytime alertness and energy, and improving mood and concentration,” says Dr. Broderick.

Sleep apnea management is a genuinely good outcome. If you feel down knowing that there is no universal cure for sleep apnea, you can rest assured (pun intended) that there are many options for treatment, including CPAP therapy, oral appliance therapy, and CPAP alternatives.

If you suspect you may have OSA or do not have a consistent treatment plan that you’re content with, consulting with an at-home sleep clinic like Dreem Health can help make that happen. The virtual, insurance-based, at-home care model removes barriers to finding help. If you’re ready to identify or treat sleep apnea, make an appointment with a sleep provider today to learn more about Dreem Health’s sleep apnea treatment. 

Does the answer change for central vs. obstructive sleep apnea?

Yes. Most talk of curing sleep apnea refers to OSA, since a physical (anatomical) cause can sometimes be corrected. 

Central sleep apnea, one of the two types of sleep apnea, comes from how the brain signals breathing and has numerous potential causes, including opioid and other sedative medications (that affect the area of the brainstem that controls breathing rhythm), heart conditions like atrial fibrillation and heart failure, ischemic stroke, spinal cord injury, and kidney failure. Treatment involves addressing those comorbid conditions, using CPAP, supplemental oxygen, medication, or the placement of a device in the chest that delivers transvenous phrenic nerve stimulation.

The bottom line

It's understandable to want sleep apnea to go away. The presence of this sleep disorder may make you groggy, irritable, and unable to focus during the day. And then there are the long-term risks to your heart and metabolic health to consider, too. For most people, sleep apnea can be managed rather than cured. Management alone can improve alertness, energy, and mood while mitigating long-term health risks. To get started on your sleep apnea treatment,  consider booking an appointment with a Dreem Health sleep provider. 

Frequently asked questions (FAQs)

Can sleep apnea come back after it goes away?

Yes. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder that has a multitude of potential causes and risk factors. It can be effectively treated.  If you treat the underlying cause but then that cause comes back, your sleep apnea may return as well. Similarly, if you use an effective treatment, like CPAP, and then stop, your sleep apnea can also come back.

Can you get rid of sleep apnea without a CPAP machine?

There are many potential treatments for obstructive sleep apnea, and CPAP is one of them. Oral appliance therapy, CPAP alternatives, and weight loss through tirzepatide can all help treat obstructive sleep apnea. The goal, however, isn’t necessarily to get rid of sleep apnea, but manage the condition well.

What is the life expectancy of a person with sleep apnea?

Sleep apnea alone doesn’t necessarily decrease your life expectancy, but complications from it may. Past research has indicated that untreated sleep apnea has a higher mortality risk compared to those who do not have sleep apnea. However, treating your sleep apnea and underlying causes can help decrease your risk of developing the chronic conditions that may affect your health and lifespan.