Finding Beauty in the Music: How One North Carolina Man is Pursuing His Passion Thanks to Inspire® Therapy

This lifestyle was not feasible before successfully treating his obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) with Inspire® therapy.

“In three to four months, I started to tell a big difference in my condition, my ability to focus,” Vespasian said. “But really, not long after being activated, I noticed that my sleep was tremendously better.”

Vespasian also loves to swim, run and work out as much as possible. In 2018, he noticed that he lacked energy he used to have.

Reduced stamina made it tough to keep up with his workouts. He even sometimes needed a nap in the afternoon.

A sleep study confirmed Vespasian had severe OSA with over 40 apnea episodes an hour. He first tried a Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) machine to help.

It didn’t take long to realize his CPAP machine did not work for him.

Vespasian’s symptoms affected those around him. He became bad-tempered with friends and family because he was so tired.

He continued to push himself physically and even ran multiple races in 2018 while dealing with a continued lack of restful sleep.

“It would take me so long to recover in between,” he said. “I knew I wanted to keep running. I loved working out. I loved swimming, and I just didn’t have the stamina anymore.”

His CPAP machine woke him up in the middle of the night because the mask wasn’t staying on his face.

Hope eventually came when a friend mentioned Inspire therapy as a potential option.

Vespasian made an appointment to see if he qualified following his own research.

He later received the Inspire® implant in the fall of 2020. He was activated about a month later.

His sleep apnea episodes later fell to under eight an hour confirmed by a follow-up sleep study.

“It only took about a week, and I could tell that I was sleeping better,” Vespasian said. “Within a few months, I was recovering quicker after workouts and felt like my concentration and focus were sharper.”

With his newfound energy, Vespasian began pursuing a passion he had long dreamed about: being a musician and playing in front of crowds.

He’s now able to do multiple performances a week. Vespasian credits quality sleep as the reason he’s able to keep up with back-to-back gigs.

In 2024, he performed over 80 gigs, playing Thursdays, Fridays and Saturdays many weeks.

“I never thought I would be doing this to the extent that I do now,” Vespasian said. “There is no way that I could gig three nights in a row before because I just would not be able to rest.”