CPAP user going on 7 years now.

It definitely helps, but only if it significantly improves your sleep or sleep quality.

Without my CPAP machine, I jerk awake after 3-4 hrs, and can't go back to sleep since I can't get enough air and my body will literally not let me go back to sleep. (I think it's genetic, I'm not overweight or fat necked, but still need high CPAP pressure.)

The CPAP lets me sleep regularly 5-6 hrs straight, and then with more pressure, another 1-2 on top, which is great. As a result of getting my CPAP, my workouts are definitely higher quality - before it, I was really having to slog through them with that less than half-awake feeling - you get can thru those, but it becomes impossible to do hard efforts when you are that sleep deprived.

I wouldn't say it has improved my performance like additional great training, but for sure, it's stopped me from suffering a precipitous decline due to lack of sleep/quality.

Also, it took me a good 1-2 years to get my CPAP pressure setting right. The CPAP test in the doctor's office put me on the minimum (7-8 mmhG) but I'm certain that was because the 20-year old night tech took one look at my 'fit' condition and assumed I wouldn't need high pressure. I barely slept the first night, and kept telling him "it's hard to breath, I feel like I need more air", and he said I would get used to it. I did a second test a few months later, and it was the same scenario - I slept so little that night that the test read "patient was awake nearly the entire evening period." It was only after I self-adjusted my CPAP settings over the next year gradually , that I discovered that the high settings helped a LOT - made all the difference from near-useless CPAP to very, very useful.

I'm now using a CPAP machine per doctor's orders due to excessive snoring and sleep apnea issues. I think I'm sleeping better and I have a little more energy during the day - not getting that afternoon fade where I feel like I need a nap. Which makes me wonder if this will lead to some improvement in my athletic performance, even if by a very small margin. Just wondering if anyone else has a similar experience and if it helped or hurt.

Undiagnosed sleep apnea has been shown to lessen your life expectancy by 10 years so I am glad you got the machine.

try the Airfit n30i mask, it might help.

surgery sucks and really isn't a good idea. do not do it, I rarely hear of it being done plus it hurts.

about 50-80% improvement but you can't predict if which group you are plus it only reduces by approximately 50% so if you are severe at 50 events per hour it will typically reduce you to 25x/hr which is moderate.