Important new research, the largest ever to look at associations between disturbed sleep and illness, finds that the effects of sleep apnea, whose classic symptoms include snoring, interrupted breathing and disrupted sleep can almost double the risk of chronic disease and early death among both middle aged and elderly men.
Even moderate sleep apnea brings as much as a 17% increased death risk as compared with those who don’t have breathing problems related to sleep.
Sleep apnea is a condition that affects about one in four men; one in ten women, and is commonly associated with adverse health outcomes such as high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease.
The disorder causes you to have one (or more) pauses in breathing, or shallow breathing, while you sleep. The pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes – happening from 5 to 30 times an hour.
Sleep apnea is chronic, and generally disrupts your sleep on three or more nights of the week and often goes undiagnosed as it’s hard to detect in a doctor’s visit, and there aren’t any blood tests to confirm a diagnosis.
Lots of patients dismiss their sleepiness during the day, the feeling of fatigue and all that goes along with it. But, if you don’t get treatment, you’ll find yourself dealing with excessive sleepiness, trouble staying alert during the day and an increased risk of accidents.
The new research points to another more ominous danger – An increased risk of death.
For the work, the team at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center used a community sample of just over 6,400 men and women between the ages of 40 and 70 who had mild to severe sleep apnea and were participating in the Sleep Heart Health Study.
Other subjects had not been diagnosed with sleeping problems, though many described themselves as having a snoring problem, and this is a hallmark symptom of sleep apnea.
Conducting in-home monitoring of sleep, the team collected about 10,000 in-depth recordings of breathing patterns, heart rhythms and brain activity. Based on this data, the team determined that about half the subjects had moderate to severe sleep apnea and they went on to keep track of the incidents of high blood pressure, heart disease or stroke in these people.
After a tracking period of just over 8 years, the researchers found that 587 men and 460 women had died. Comparing the death tallies to the sleep pattern recordings, the researchers found that experiencing just 11 minutes of severe sleep apnea, where blood oxygen levels dropped to under 90% of normal, was associated with roughly double the risk of death among the male subjects.
Similar conclusions couldn’t be drawn for women, due to the small numbers with sleep apnea.
“The primary finding of our study is that sleep apnea can increase the risk of death by about 40%, even after Naresh Punjabi other factors have been accounted for,” explains study lead author Dr. Naresh Punjabi, an associate professor of medicine at the Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine in Baltimore. “Our study also shows that it is the decrease in oxygen levels during sleep from sleep apnea that explains the increased risk of death.”
The findings appear in the August 18, 2009 issue of the journal PLoS Medicine and suggest that anyone with sleep apnea pay attention to their condition.
Doctors need to pay diligent attention to sleeping habits and problems, especially in middle aged (and older) patients so they can intervene quickly.
Losing weight can sometimes help, as can the use of devices that keep you from rolling on your back while sleeping.
The current treatment for serious cases is the continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) device. It works like a sort of oxygen mask, worn over the nose to force in air and keep pathways from collapsing.
If you suspect yourself, or someone in your life to be suffering with the effects of sleep apnea, talk with your doctor or a sleep specialist to find the right treatment for your symptoms.
