CO2 Management - Sleep Apnea, Wim Hoff Breathing & Brain Health
By Live Thumos | Respiratory Science | Sleep Health | Brain Optimization | Breathwork
When most people think about the air they breathe, they think about oxygen. Getting enough of it. Breathing deeply to pull more in. The entire wellness breathing conversation from meditation apps to performance coaches is almost entirely framed around oxygen: get more of it, use it better, deliver it faster to your muscles and brain.
But there is another gas in the equation that most people never think about, that your body monitors with extraordinary precision, and that determines more than almost any other single variable whether you breathe stably through the night or wake up gasping, whether your brain has adequate blood flow during sleep, and whether your nervous system can regulate itself under pressure. That's why THUMOS is focused on systems.
That gas is carbon dioxide (CO2).
And in the decade since Wim Hof walked into a science laboratory and forced researchers to rewrite what they thought was possible about conscious control of the autonomic nervous system, the science of deliberate CO2 manipulation through controlled breathwork has become one of the most compelling frontiers in brain health, sleep medicine, and performance science.
This is the story of CO2 what it actually does, why its mismanagement is at the heart of the sleep apnea epidemic, and how the breathing techniques pioneered by Wim Hof may represent a genuine, evidence-based intervention for the brain's most fundamental regulatory systems.
CO2: The Misunderstood Gas That Runs Your Breathing
Here is a fact that surprises most people: you do not breathe primarily because you need oxygen. You breathe primarily because you need to expel CO2.
Your breathing rate is not controlled by oxygen detectors. It is controlled by chemoreceptors sensors in the brainstem and carotid arteries that monitor the partial pressure of carbon dioxide in your arterial blood. When CO2 rises above a certain threshold, these sensors fire, and you feel the urge to breathe. When CO2 drops below the normal range — as it does during hyperventilation that breathing drive diminishes, and in certain contexts, stops entirely.
This mechanism has profound implications for sleep, for brain health, and for understanding why so many people's breathing becomes unstable the moment they fall asleep.
CO2 is not just a waste product. It is the primary chemical signal that regulates your breathing. And its relationship to the brain is even more direct than most people know.
CO2 is a potent vasodilator, it causes blood vessels to relax and widen. When CO2 levels are adequate in the blood, cerebral blood vessels remain appropriately dilated, maintaining healthy blood flow to the brain. When CO2 drops as it does during hyperventilation — cerebral blood vessels constrict, reducing blood flow to the brain. This is why people who hyperventilate during anxiety attacks feel dizzy, disoriented, and cognitively impaired: less CO2 means less blood reaching the brain, even while oxygen levels remain normal or elevated.
This vascular sensitivity of the brain to CO2 called cerebrovascular reactivity is a critical parameter of brain health. The brain's ability to respond appropriately to CO2 changes determines how consistently and efficiently it is perfused with the oxygenated blood it needs to function. A brain with healthy CO2 responsiveness maintains stable, adequate perfusion. A brain with dysregulated CO2 responsiveness fluctuates sometimes over-perfused, sometimes under-perfused in patterns that disrupt sleep, impair cognition, and over time may accelerate neurodegeneration.
Sleep Apnea: A CO2 Management Crisis
Sleep apnea affects an estimated 1 billion people globally, with approximately 30 million Americans diagnosed and tens of millions more undiagnosed. The most commonly discussed form obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is understood as a structural problem: the airway physically collapses during sleep, interrupting breathing. But the less-discussed form central sleep apnea (CSA) and the mechanisms underlying many cases of OSA, reveal a biochemical story that centers directly on CO2.
To understand why, you need to understand the apneic threshold one of the most important and least-discussed concepts in sleep medicine.
During waking, your breathing is stabilized by what researchers call the "wakefulness drive" a tonic neural signal from higher brain centers that supports continuous respiratory effort regardless of CO2 levels. This wakefulness drive is powerful enough to override the CO2 control system and maintain stable breathing even during wide fluctuations in blood chemistry.
When you fall asleep, this waking neural drive to breathe is lost, rendering respiration critically dependent on the partial pressure of carbon dioxide Suddenly, CO2 is no longer one of several inputs to breathing regulation, it becomes essentially the only input. And this creates a vulnerability.
Sleep unmasks a highly sensitive hypocapnia-induced apnoeic threshold, whereby apnoea is initiated by small transient reductions in arterial CO2 pressure (PaCO2) below eupnoea and respiratory rhythm is not restored until PaCO2 has risen significantly above eupnea levels.
The apneic threshold is the CO2 level below which breathing simply stops. During sleep, this threshold sits just 2–6 mmHg below the normal sleeping CO2 level.Specifically, if the PaCO2 falls below a critical threshold known as the "apnea threshold", central respiratory drive ceases.
Here is the cascade that produces central sleep apnea and contributes to many cases of mixed and obstructive apnea as well:
1. Something causes a brief arousal or an increase in ventilation during sleep (a noise, a positional shift, a moment of stress, or simply an overly sensitive CO2 response).
2. This hyperventilation blows off CO2, dropping PaCO2 below the apneic threshold.
3. Breathing stops, not because the airway is blocked, but because the chemical signal to breathe has been removed.
4. During the apnea, CO2 accumulates again until it rises back above the threshold and triggers a large ventilatory response.
5. The large ventilatory response again drops CO2 below the threshold, producing another apnea.
6. This cycle — hyperventilation, apnea, CO2 accumulation, hyperventilation — repeats throughout the night, fragmenting sleep with arousals, dropping blood oxygen, stressing the cardiovascular system, and flooding the brain with inflammatory signals.
CSA often develops in patients with reduced CO2 ventilatory reserve for which exogenous CO2 administration during sleep can increase ventilatory reserve and stabilize CSA/CSR. Research published in Frontiers in Sleep on loop gain the mathematical measure of how overreactive the breathing control system is confirms that patients with high loop gain (a highly sensitive CO2 response) are most vulnerable to this cycle. The situation of high loop gain, a robust respiratory response to a reduction in ventilation increases the risk of inducing hypocapnia below the hypocapnic apneic threshold and thus induction of a central apnea.
The therapeutic implication is striking: increasing CO2 reserves widening the gap between normal sleeping CO2 and the apneic threshold directly stabilizes breathing during sleep. This is why CO2 rebreathing therapies have shown success in central sleep apnea, and why anything that trains the body to tolerate higher CO2 levels without triggering the panicked hyperventilation response has direct therapeutic relevance for sleep-disordered breathing.
This is where Wim Hof's method enters the picture not as alternative medicine, but as a potential physiological intervention operating on the exact regulatory systems sleep apnea disrupts.
What Wim Hof Did That Science Said Was Impossible
Wim Hof is a Dutch extreme athlete who holds multiple world records for cold exposure swimming under ice, standing in ice water for extended periods, climbing mountains in below-freezing temperatures wearing only shorts. For decades, scientists dismissed his claims that he could consciously control his autonomic nervous system and immune response as either impossible or simply anecdotal.
Then the science began.
The breakthrough came in 2014 when Radboud University Medical Center published a study in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences (PNAS) one of the most rigorous peer-reviewed journals in the world that changed the conversation permanently.
Healthy volunteers practicing the techniques learned in a short-term training program exhibited profound increases in the release of epinephrine, which in turn led to increased production of anti-inflammatory mediators and subsequent dampening of the proinflammatory cytokine response elicited by intravenous administration of bacterial endotoxin.
The participants had been trained in the Wim Hof Method for just 10 days before being injected with bacterial endotoxin a standard experimental method for triggering a controlled immune response. Untrained controls experienced the expected symptoms: fever, nausea, headache, and elevated inflammatory cytokines. The trained practitioners experienced significantly milder symptoms and measurably lower inflammatory cytokine levels.
Hitherto, both the autonomic nervous system and innate immune system were regarded as systems that cannot be voluntarily influenced. The present study demonstrates that, through practicing techniques learned in a short-term training program, the sympathetic nervous system and immune system can indeed be voluntarily influenced.
This was not a minor finding. This was a paradigm-overturning result that rewrote a fundamental assumption of biomedical science that the innate immune system, like the autonomic nervous system, is hardwired and beyond conscious control. It isn't.
A Wayne State University School of Medicine brain imaging study published in NeuroImage further confirmed the primacy of the brain in mediating the Wim Hof Method's effects, finding compelling evidence that the CNS not peripheral mechanisms was the primary driver of his responses to cold exposure. The brain, not the body, is where the Wim Hof method operates.
The Physiology of Wim Hof Breathing: What Actually Happens in Your Body and Brain
The Wim Hof Method breathing technique consists of three phases that work together to produce its documented effects:
Phase 1: 30–40 Controlled Deep Breaths Rapid, full inhalations followed by passive exhalations. This controlled hyperventilation drops blood CO2 significantly producing respiratory alkalosis (increased blood pH), tingling sensations, lightheadedness, and altered states of consciousness as cerebral blood vessels constrict in response to the lower CO2. The sympathetic nervous system is powerfully activated. Epinephrine (adrenaline) floods the system.
Phase 2: Breath Retention (the "empty" hold) After the last breath, you exhale fully and hold your breath with empty lungs. Because the hyperventilation phase eliminated most CO2, the apneic threshold has shifted dramatically: you can hold your breath comfortably for 1 to 3 minutes or more without the normal CO2-driven urge to breathe. During this retention phase, oxygen slowly depletes from the blood and CO2 gradually rebuilds. The body enters a state of mild hypoxic stress.
The initial 30 consecutive deep breaths followed by a full exhale and sustained breath retention of 30 seconds or more induces a significant increase in arterial blood flow, vasodilation, and an increase in cerebral blood volume.
This is the preconditioning phase analogous to the cerebral preconditioning observed in BJJ athletes. The mild hypoxic challenge during breath retention triggers protective cellular adaptations: mitochondria activate survival pathways, HIF-1α (hypoxia-inducible factor) upregulates glucose transport, antioxidant defenses are primed, and the body's tolerance for subsequent hypoxic stress measurably increases.
Phase 3: Recovery Breath and Retention at Full Lungs A deep inhalation fills the lungs completely, and you hold at the top — with full lungs. During this phase, CO2 continues to rebuild while oxygen is restored. Cerebral blood vessels dilate as CO2 returns. Blood flow to the brain surges. Many practitioners report a profound clarity and calm during this phase a neurological reset following the activation-and-release cycle of the first two phases.
Researchers hypothesize that this oscillating pattern, CO2 drops and cerebral blood flow constricts, then CO2 returns and cerebral blood flow surges — may function as what one research team described as "the brain's version of a pressure wash," cycling cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) movement in patterns that may enhance the brain's glymphatic waste clearance system.
Wim Hof Breathing and the Glymphatic System: Flushing the Brain
Here is one of the most compelling emerging hypotheses in neuroscience, and it connects directly to both the Wim Hof method and sleep apnea's consequences for brain health.
The glymphatic system — discovered in 2012 by researchers at the University of Rochester is the brain's waste clearance network. During sleep, cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) flows through channels around blood vessels in the brain, washing out metabolic waste products including beta-amyloid and tau proteins, the pathological hallmarks of Alzheimer's disease. This glymphatic flushing is primarily active during deep sleep and is one of the most important reasons adequate, uninterrupted sleep is essential for long-term brain health.
Sleep apnea, by fragmenting sleep and disrupting the deep sleep stages where glymphatic clearance is most active, is now recognized as a significant risk factor for neurodegenerative disease, specifically because it impairs this waste clearance function.
This is where the Wim Hof hypothesis becomes fascinating. A paper published in ScienceDirect proposed the hypothesis that the Wim Hof Method breathing technique can induce accelerated, conscious waste clearance of the brain. CSF flow is directly influenced by respiration. The more pronounced the respiration force, the greater the impact on CSF movement.
The mechanism the researchers proposed runs as follows: deep, forceful breathing during the Wim Hof active phase increases CSF influx into the brain. During the breath retention phase, the return of CO2 causes cerebral vasodilation and an increase in cerebral blood volume which, based on the inverse relationship between cerebral blood volume and CSF volume, forces CSF outward, potentially carrying accumulated metabolic waste with it.
During the retention phase of Wim Hof Method breathing, the arteries in your brain dilate, causing more blood to come in. This in turn forces the cerebrospinal fluid out, carrying the waste with it. By doing Wim Hof Method breathing, you would be actively sweeping out the cobwebs of your brain.
A UC San Diego study scheduled for 2026 — titled "Investigating the Neural and Cerebrovascular Effects of the Wim Hof Breathing Technique: Implications for Glymphatic Function and Brain Waste Clearance" is specifically designed to test this hypothesis using fMRI and PET imaging. The research represents a remarkable convergence: a breathwork technique, originally categorized by the scientific establishment as implausible, is now the subject of formal glymphatic and neuroimaging research at one of the world's top research universities.
The implication for sleep apnea patients specifically is significant. If sleep apnea impairs glymphatic clearance by fragmenting deep sleep, and if Wim Hof breathing can stimulate some degree of conscious CSF movement and waste clearance, the practice may offer a complementary not alternative pathway toward reducing the neurological burden of sleep-disordered breathing.
CO2 Tolerance Training: The Breathing Bridge Between Wim Hof and Sleep Apnea
Beyond glymphatic clearance, the Wim Hof breathing technique may address sleep apnea through a second mechanism that is more directly physiological: CO2 tolerance training.
The breath retention phases of the Wim Hof method are, in effect, a form of voluntary CO2 exposure. During both the empty-lung hold (Phase 2) and the full-lung hold (Phase 3), CO2 builds in the blood while the urge to breathe is consciously resisted. Over repeated practice, this trains the chemoreceptors and the brainstem respiratory control centers to become less reactive to CO2 fluctuations to tolerate wider swings in CO2 without triggering the panicked hyperventilation response that drives sleep apnea's oscillating cycle.
This is directly analogous to the therapeutic rationale behind CO2 rebreathing therapies for central sleep apnea. Simply increasing the background CO2 via sustained hypoventilation does not protect against crossing the apnoeic threshold. Unstable, periodic ventilatory patterns during sleep are stabilized when hyperventilation and hypocapnia are prevented, meaning that widening the CO2 reserve and reducing the chemoreceptor's sensitivity to brief CO2 changes directly reduces the frequency of apnea events.
Deliberate breath-holding practice whether in the Wim Hof protocol or in the nasal breathing and breath hold exercises advocated by Patrick McKeown (the Oxygen Advantage method) is essentially voluntary CO2 tolerance training. The body learns that CO2 rising is not an emergency. The chemoreceptors become less hair-trigger. The apneic threshold gap widens. And during sleep, the respiratory control system has more room to maneuver before crossing into apnea territory.
This is not a cure for sleep apnea, and for severe OSA, CPAP and other medical interventions remain essential. But for the millions of people with mild-to-moderate sleep-disordered breathing, poor CO2 tolerance, and chronically over-reactive breathing patterns CO2 training through deliberate breathwork represents a genuinely evidence-adjacent intervention that targets the underlying physiological mechanism rather than just managing symptoms.
The Autonomic Nervous System Bridge: How Wim Hof Breathing Builds Stress Resilience
Beyond CO2 management and glymphatic clearance, the Wim Hof method's most robustly documented effect is on the autonomic nervous system — the same system that governs breathing regulation, heart rate variability, and the sympathetic-parasympathetic balance that THUMOS supports through L-Theanine and gut-brain axis ingredients.
The PNAS study established that Wim Hof practitioners can voluntarily activate their sympathetic nervous system flooding the body with epinephrine and norepinephrine on command. But the therapeutic insight is not simply that this activation is possible. It is that voluntary, controlled activation of the sympathetic system followed by deliberate parasympathetic recovery builds the same kind of nervous system resilience that the best research on stress hardiness, vagal tone, and heart rate variability consistently identifies as protective.
Research on the WHM published in Scientific Reports (2023) found that a 15-day WHM intervention produced measurable changes in cardiovascular parameters and psychological outcomes in healthy participants with effects on autonomic function consistent with improved stress regulation.
This hormetic principle controlled stress exposure strengthening the system's capacity to manage stress is the same principle underlying cold exposure, high-intensity exercise, and intermittent fasting. The Wim Hof breathing technique is, in this framework, a voluntary stressor that trains the nervous system's resilience without the risk of the uncontrolled, chronic stress that drives HPA axis dysregulation.
For sleep apnea patients in particular, this matters because the autonomic imbalance of chronic sleep apnea heightened sympathetic tone, reduced vagal activity, impaired heart rate variability is precisely the dysregulation that deliberate breathwork is positioned to address. The practice doesn't just train CO2 tolerance. It trains the nervous system's ability to transition between arousal and calm the transition that sleep, which requires moving between wakefulness and deep parasympathetic states, demands every single night.
Nasal Breathing, Nitric Oxide, and Why HOW You Breathe Changes Everything
The Wim Hof method is not the only breathing intervention with documented brain and sleep health effects. One of the simplest and most impactful breathing interventions for sleep apnea is also the most overlooked: breathing through your nose instead of your mouth.
Mouth breathing at night can lead to restless sleep, snoring, and even sleep apnea. It triggers stress, keeping your body in fight-or-flight mode, collapses airways, and increases the risk of snoring and sleep apnea. Nasal breathing, on the other hand, delivers 20% more oxygen to the brain, produces nitric oxide to open airways, supports better breathing, and helps reduce snoring for deeper, uninterrupted sleep.
Nitric oxide (NO) produced in the nasal sinuses during nasal breathing is both a vasodilator and a bronchodilator, it relaxes smooth muscle in blood vessels and airways, keeping the upper airway more patent and reducing the structural collapse risk that drives obstructive apneas. It also contributes to the cerebrovascular CO2 sensitivity that determines how efficiently the brain responds to CO2 fluctuations during sleep.
The combination of Wim Hof CO2 tolerance training during waking hours with consistent nasal breathing during sleep creates a complementary two-sided intervention: training chemoreceptor tolerance during the day, and maintaining airway patency and optimal CO2 dynamics through nasal breathing at night.
How THUMOS Supports the Brain Systems That CO2 Management and Breathwork Protect
The biological systems that CO2 management, sleep apnea, and Wim Hof breathwork all ultimately affect cerebrovascular health, mitochondrial adaptation, neuroinflammation, autonomic nervous system regulation, and glymphatic function, are precisely the systems that THUMOS's ingredient stack is designed to support.
CoQ10 (100mg, Nano-Emulsified) — Mitochondrial Resilience Under Hypoxic Stress
The breath retention phases of Wim Hof breathing, and the intermittent hypoxia of sleep apnea, both place stress on the mitochondria of neurons. The preconditioning research establishes that mitochondria are the master regulators of the adaptive neuroprotective response — and that adequate mitochondrial function is required for the beneficial adaptation to occur rather than damage accumulating.
CoQ10 powers the mitochondrial electron transport chain — the ATP production machinery that neuronal mitochondria depend on to respond to hypoxic stress adaptively rather than maladaptively. By maintaining mitochondrial efficiency and providing potent antioxidant protection within the mitochondrial membrane, nano-emulsified CoQ10 supports the cellular energy infrastructure that both deliberate breathwork adaptation and sleep-apnea-related hypoxic stress demand.
Taurine (500mg) — Neuroprotection Against Hypoxic Damage and Calcium Dysregulation
Sleep apnea's intermittent hypoxia and the brief hypoxia of Wim Hof breath holds both challenge neuronal calcium homeostasis — the internal calcium regulation that, when disrupted, contributes to excitotoxic cell damage. Taurine directly regulates intracellular calcium in neurons, protecting against the calcium overload that hypoxic events can trigger. Research confirms that taurine protects brain mitochondria under metabolic stress and recovers ATP levels in compromised mitochondria — making it a direct nutritional complement to the neuroprotective adaptations that controlled breathwork training is designed to build.
L-Theanine (200mg) — Parasympathetic Recovery After Sympathetic Activation
The Wim Hof breathing cycle involves deliberate sympathetic activation (Phase 1) followed by the parasympathetic recovery of the breath hold and retention phases. L-Theanine elevates GABA, supports alpha brain wave activity — the signature of relaxed wakefulness — and has been shown to shift autonomic balance toward parasympathetic dominance. For practitioners alternating between intense breathwork activation and recovery, L-Theanine supports the parasympathetic end of that cycle — reinforcing the calm, regulated state that the practice ultimately aims to cultivate as a resting baseline.
For sleep apnea patients, L-Theanine's cortisol moderation and GABA support directly address the sympathetic overdrive and HPA axis dysregulation that chronic sleep-disordered breathing produces — supporting the autonomic balance that restorative sleep requires.
Cognizin® Citicoline (200mg) — Brain Energy Under Intermittent Oxygen Fluctuation
Sleep apnea's repeated overnight desaturation events reduce the oxygen available to brain cells for ATP production. Cognizin® Citicoline addresses this by directly increasing frontal lobe ATP by 14% (as documented by phosphorus MRS brain imaging in clinical research) — supporting the neuroenergetic baseline that repeated oxygen desaturation events deplete. Citicoline also supports acetylcholine production and neuronal membrane integrity — the structural health of brain cells that chronic hypoxic stress from unmanaged sleep apnea progressively challenges.
Agave Inulin (1g) + L-Glutamine (1g) — The Gut-Brain Axis and Neuroinflammation
Sleep apnea is now recognized as a driver of systemic and neuroinflammation — the same inflammatory cascade that gut dysbiosis and leaky gut amplify. Research confirms that sleep apnea produces intermittent hypoxia that activates inflammatory pathways, with the NLRP3 inflammasome identified as a key molecular mediator linking sleep apnea's hypoxia to cardiovascular and neurocognitive complications. By protecting gut barrier integrity (L-Glutamine) and maintaining the beneficial microbiome populations that reduce systemic inflammation (Agave Inulin), THUMOS addresses the gut-brain axis amplification of the neuroinflammatory burden that sleep apnea creates.
A Daily Practice Worth Building
The science on CO2 management, sleep apnea, and deliberate breathwork has reached the point where several evidence-adjacent conclusions can be drawn with reasonable confidence:
CO2 is the master regulator of breathing during sleep, not oxygen — and its mismanagement is at the mechanical heart of both central and mixed sleep apnea pathology.
The apneic threshold — the CO2 level below which breathing stops during sleep — can be influenced by how you breathe during waking hours, and CO2 tolerance training through deliberate breath holds may widen the safety margin that prevents apnea cycles from triggering.
The Wim Hof Method has overturned foundational assumptions about what conscious breathing practice can achieve, with the landmark PNAS study demonstrating voluntary immune and autonomic nervous system control that immunologists considered impossible — and emerging research pointing toward potential glymphatic clearance benefits that could directly address sleep apnea's most significant long-term neurological consequence.
Nasal breathing during sleep is one of the simplest, most accessible interventions for reducing apnea risk and improving overnight oxygen delivery to the brain.
And supporting the biological systems that CO2 management, breathwork adaptation, and sleep-apnea-related stress all tax — mitochondrial function, neuronal calcium homeostasis, autonomic nervous system regulation, neuroinflammation, and brain ATP production — is the nutritional complement to these practices that most people haven't yet connected.
That connection is what THUMOS provides — not as a substitute for breathwork or medical treatment, but as the daily biological foundation that gives those practices the cellular infrastructure to work most effectively.
Breathe deliberately. Sleep deeply. Support the biology that makes both possible.
THUMOS is here to support you on a cellular level.
Learn more at livethumos.com
Citations & References
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- Almahayni, O. & Hammond, L. (2024). Does the Wim Hof Method Have a Beneficial Impact on Physiological and Psychological Outcomes in Healthy and Non-Healthy Participants? A Systematic Review. PLOS ONE, 19(3), e0286933.
- Ketelhut, S., Querciagrossa, D., Bisang, X., et al. (2023). The Effectiveness of the Wim Hof Method on Cardiac Autonomic Function, Blood Pressure, Arterial Compliance, and Different Psychological Parameters. Scientific Reports. pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC10579249
- Muzik, O., Reilly, K.T., Diwadkar, V.A. (2018). "Brain over Body" — A Study on the Willful Regulation of Autonomic Function During Cold Exposure. NeuroImage, 172, 632–641.
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- Cognizin® / Kyowa Hakko. Cognizin® Citicoline Increases Brain Energy (ATP) by 14% in Frontal Lobe. cognizin.com/studies/cognizin-citicoline-increases-brain-energy-atp-by-14
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- THUMOS. (2025). Science-Backed Cellular Energy, Brain Health, and Nervous System Support. livethumos.com
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Safety Note: The Wim Hof Method breathing technique involves controlled hyperventilation and breath holding, which can cause lightheadedness or loss of consciousness. Always practice seated or lying down. Never practice near water, while driving, or in any position where a fall could cause injury. Individuals with cardiovascular conditions, epilepsy, high blood pressure, or who are pregnant should consult a physician before practicing. This blog is for educational purposes only and does not constitute medical advice. THUMOS is a daily supplement and is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease including sleep apnea. Always consult a licensed healthcare professional for sleep disorders and any medical conditions.*