Many of us can relate to the experience of feeling drowsy during the day, even after getting sufficient sleep the previous night. However, for certain individuals, this daytime sleepiness is not an occasional occurrence but a persistent and exhausting routine that significantly affects their well-being.

The cause is often obstructive sleep apnea, which is because of throat muscles relaxing and temporarily blocking the airway, causing the person to briefly or partially wake up, sometimes as much as thirty times a night, and leaving the sufferer with a scant recollection of waking.

Some estimates suggest around 1 billion people are affected and suffer from excessive daytime sleepiness.

Or worse, recently published studies in the journals Neurology and Frontiers in Sleep, linked sleep apnea with a greater likelihood of a cognitive decline in old age.

Given we spend around one-third of our lives asleep, making sure those resting hours are well spent is crucial to general health and to how productive our waking hours are.

The usual treatment for sleep apnea is a positive airway pressure mask, which can help keep the pipes open during the vital hours of shut-eye.

But for some, the mask doesn’t always work, leading to those relentless interruptions of sleep and that dreaded daytime grogginess.

Researchers Dena Zeraatkar and Tyler Pitre from Canada's McMaster University have found that the drug solriamfetol is the most effective treatment for excessive daytime sleepiness caused by obstructive sleep apnea. Their findings were published in May in the Annals of Internal Medicine.

"The most important thing that people with OSA should do is use their PAP machine, but if they are still sleepy, there are options as medications that can reduce their tiredness," said Pitre, a resident physician in internal medicine at McMaster University.

Zeraatkar said that while solriamfetol is likely the best thing to take for EDS, armodafinil–modafinil and pitolisant are also effective in fending off that next-day drowsiness, and could also be used by those having chronic fatigue syndrome and long COVID-19.