What are the benefits of treating sleep apnea?

Abstract

There is little benefit to treating patients with sleep apnea who do not have daytime sleepiness. For patients with symptoms, treating those with moderate to severe sleep apnea is more reliably associated with benefits than treating those with a mild case. Benefits include: decreased daytime sleepiness; improvements in subjective sleep quality in patient and sleep partner; improved psychologic well-being, cognitive function, and quality of life; decreased numbers of traffic accidents; and small decreases in blood pressure. (Grade of recommendation: B-, based primarily on cohort studies and case series and a small number of randomized controlled trials [RCTs])