For most patients with sleep apnoea, continuous positive airway pressure therapy mitigates health risks, but some struggle with treatment adherence. A recent study showed that 12 months after surgical implantation of an upper-airway stimulation device, patients experienced significantly fewer apnoea or hypopnoea events per sleeping hour than at baseline, and also reported improved quality of life. A random subset of patients then had their stimulators deactivated for 7 days, which prompted a return of sleep apnoea events.