Sleep Apnea and SNHL & Tinnitus: Need Help with Decision Whether to Use CPAP Device

[Zam]

Background:

• I've been diagnosed with sleep apnea, roughly 30 events per hour.
• I've had sensorineural hearing loss twice, both of which happened during sleep (with increase in general T after each event)
• Once in a while (maybe once every 1-3 months), I get very loud T in the middle of the night upon waking up. These events always worry me because that was the same symptom I got from my two prior hearing losses.

I'd always thought that the Tinnitus woke me up in the aforementioned events, however I had a thought that perhaps it was the other way around. Perhaps the fact that I was getting T was because of my sleep quality, and I was woken up because of a particularly bad episode of sleep apnea, the symptom of which would be bad T.

So I googled around to see if there could be a link between sleep apnea and SNHL & T, and I came across these two studies:
http://journals.lww.com/thehearingj....aspx?year=2012&issue=04000&article=00005#ath

http://hear-it.org/sleep-apnea-can-cause-hearing-loss

Apparently, these studies seem to suggest a correlation between hearing loss in the low & high frequencies and sleep apnea, which is exactly the type of hearing loss that I have (around 30-40 dB in the lower, and 70+ in the higher, going up to about 10 dB around 3KHz (mid range).

Now my issue is that I tried the CPAP machine for about a month and half without any positive results in terms of my sleep apnea symptoms (fatigue, memory, etc) so I returned it.

However, I have 1 month to decide if I want to take the machine back without losing about $500 on it if I were to purchase it later on (insurance stuff).

Now my question is whether you guys think it is worth going through the hassle using a CPAP machine solely for the possibility of my hearing loss/T not worsening (based on my observations and those studies)?

What would you do in my situation, assuming that you didn't care as much about the other symptoms of sleep apnea?

 

[gotyoubynuts]

Apparently, these studies seem to suggest a correlation between hearing loss in the low & high frequencies and sleep apnea, which is exactly the type of hearing loss that I have (around 30-40 dB in the lower, and 70+ in the higher, going up to about 10 dB around 3KHz (mid range).

Why don't you trust the studies?

Now my issue is that I tried the CPAP machine for about a month and half without any positive results in terms of my sleep apnea symptoms (fatigue, memory, etc) so I returned it.

You gave up too early. My sister-in-law has sleep apnea and she had to try several different masks and settings with the machine before she got used to it.

 

[Mario martz]

This is very interesting.
i have been dealing with sleep apnea for a while.. and after a few months...
tinnitus appeared out of nowhere.
my hearing is in the normal range.
but a little lower in the low frencuencies wich might suggest endolymphatic hydrops.
but still i have normal hearing, no other type of symptoms...

there are a few studies suggesting that sleep apnear causes menieres (or endolymphatic hydrops)
such a mystery u____u

 

[Samantha R]

@Zam
I was diagnosed with sleep apnea as well.
I don't have measurable hearing loss, but I was having an 'event' every 3 minutes, some apneas over a minute at a time.
Funny you mention the waking with loud ringing - that happens to me but a lot more frequently.
I have to lose some weight, which I am working on (I had twins 4 months ago).
I have been trialling a CPAP machine, and I have noticed that I don't wake with loud tinnitus anymore (last night in my sleep, I must have taken the mask off, and I woke with loud ringing again).
My tinnitus has been more subdued as well, but then again it's hard to say if this is due to using the CPAP as I was having some quiet periods before the CPAP.
I have had to adjust the settings as said above to get comfortable.
I now feel fine using it, and according to the machine, my events have reduced to less than one per hour.
I personally am going to keep using the CPAP at least until I have lost the weight.

 

[Zam]

Why don't you trust the studies?

The number of studies, the fact that there doesn't seem to be much follow-up, nor recognition from the medical community.

I'm obviously strongly considering it as a possibility for the cause of my snhl (since I mentioned it at all) but I'm not an expert, nor can anyone definitively tell me that sleep apnea is the cause of my issues, so I'm not going to blindly trust my instincts and a couple of studies that have not made it into the mainstream medical community.

 

[billie48]

I have sleep apnea and have used CPAP machine for over 20 years. I also have days when my sinus got congested and so the CPAP didn't work well. Those are the days of extremely loud T. It seems the brain is oxygen deprived that I simply woke up with loud, loud T. I would have to really inhale a lot of fresh air for my T to slowly go back to base level. So I don't don't know if sleep apnea can cause snhl, but it can aggrate T for sure, at least for me. I think you need to make sure your CPAP machine is set to the right pressure for you. I used to purchase CPAP machine via a medical supplies outlet and they have specialist to work with their customer to monitor the CPAP reading to make sure the customer has the right pressure to get the most restful sleep without sleep apnea. Do you use such a person to help you set your machine at the optimal pressure for you?

 

[Zam]

I have sleep apnea and have used CPAP machine for over 20 years. I also have days when my sinus got congested and so the CPAP didn't work well. Those are the days of extremely loud T. It seems the brain is oxygen deprived that I simply woke up with loud, loud T. I would have to really inhale a lot of fresh air for my T to slowly go back to base level. So I don't don't know if sleep apnea can cause snhl, but it can aggrate T for sure, at least for me. I think you need to make sure your CPAP machine is set to the right pressure for you. I used to purchase CPAP machine via a medical supplies outlet and they have specialist to work with their customer to monitor the CPAP reading to make sure the customer has the right pressure to get the most restful sleep without sleep apnea. Do you use such a person to help you set your machine at the optimal pressure for you?

Yep.