Doctors typically don't suggest using medicines to treat obstructive sleep apnea. Children may be given intranasal corticosteroid medicine for mild sleep apnea if surgery cannot be done or if the surgery did not work.3
But medicine can help reduce daytime sleepiness when continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is reducing the number of times you stop breathing at night but you still feel sleepy during the day.9, 10
People with sleep apnea who take these medicines to reduce daytime sleepiness should keep using CPAP to treat sleep apnea.