Sleep apnoea device 'life-changing', patient says

BBC News

25-07-2025

One morning at the beginning of June, Alison Eastwood woke up and "the whole world seemed clearer and brighter".It was the first night the 52-year-old had spent on a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine, having been diagnosed with sleep apnoea after a decade of ill health.Ms Eastwood from Slaithwaite, Huddersfield, had spent the past decade bed-bound, suffering with a series of health conditions including a kidney infection and sepsis.She had seen countless doctors, spent two years in treatment for chronic fatigue syndrome and had resigned herself to "living life as a disabled person", managing to work part time from home.
"I thought there was no help left," she said."I was at the doctors for an unrelated issue. My doctor asked whether I snored and whether I stopped breathing in my sleep, which I thought were odd questions and I said no to both."I didn't think I had any issues with sleep, except I couldn't stop sleeping."After undergoing a sleep study she was diagnosed with sleep apnoea - a condition in which a person temporarily stops breathing while they are asleep and which can lead to serious health conditions.Ms Eastwood was given a CPAP machine, which blows air through a mask keeping the airway open during sleep – and said her life changed dramatically."I've been looking at the world through a very exhausted fog for a very long time and with one night on the machine I knew that something had changed," she said."Colours just looked brighter and I actually felt like my brain had rested for the first time in a very long time."
Ms Eastwood said she now wants to raise awareness of the condition to try to help others suffering from fatigue."We spend a third of our lives asleep and it has some really important functions, especially repairing the body, so if you have physical conditions you need to be having a good sleep for the body to repair itself," she said.
Ms Eastwood's GP, Louise Oliver, who is also a functional breathing practitioner, recommended her for the sleep study.She said 85% of people with the condition are undiagnosed."Over the past four to five years I started asking patients specifically do you snore, do you stop breathing during sleep and having a low threshold to refer someone for a sleep study," she said."I've just seen this hidden epidemic and I've also seen how when people improve how they breathe when they get treated for obstructive sleep apnoea."With Alison I think we caught her at the good outcome. Some people, unfortunately, don't tolerate the treatment and there is a dropout rate with treatments so actually we need more research into how we can make the treatment more successful for people."For Ms Eastwood, the diagnosis and treatment have given her a future she did not expect to have."I forgot how it felt to be well. I now have energy to spare. It feels like everything is flowing again," she said."My anxiety levels have dropped, I feel calmer, I can think clearly and I feel like I want to move. My body wants to move. It's life changing."It feels like I've been given another chance to enjoy life."
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