Snoring: Short pauses in breathing are particularly risky

Christiane Fux studied journalism and psychology in Hamburg. The experienced medical editor has been writing magazine articles, news and factual texts on all conceivable health topics since 2001. In addition to her work for, Christiane Fux is also active in prose. Her first crime novel was published in 2012, and she also writes, designs and publishes her own crime plays.

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Snoring is considered a problem that troubles less the sleeper than the bed companion. It looks different when you catch your breath. The nocturnal pauses in breathing, called obstructive sleep apnea syndrome by doctors, damage the metabolism, brain and other organs over the long term.

Sleep doctors use a special index to classify the severity of sleep apnea. This is done by determining the number of pauses in breathing that occur in the course of an hour. In a study with 5712 patients with sleep apnea, researchers led by Matthew Butler from Oregon Health and Science University have found that the length of the pauses in breathing also influences the danger of the syndrome.

Short dropouts, high risk

The patients in the group with the shortest breathing pauses were 31 percent more likely to die over the next 11 years than those with long pauses in breathing. The effect was particularly strong in the group of participants with brief respiratory pauses in moderate sleep apnea. For them, the risk of death increases by as much as 59 percent. The researchers found this connection in the female participants as well as in the male participants. “At first glance, these results seem absurd. You might expect longer breaks to be more problematic, ”says Butlers. But that is deceptive.

Sleep disorders, accelerated heart rate, high blood pressure

Shorter pauses in breathing are associated with a low breathing excitation threshold: the patient wakes up briefly when the pauses in breathing, whereupon breathing starts again.

That seems like a good thing at first. But the frequent interruptions to sleep are problematic for health in the long term. A low respiratory excitation threshold is also related to a higher level of excitation of the autonomic nervous system. The body is in flight or combat mode - with a faster heartbeat and higher blood pressure.

"The study shows that even moderate sleep apnea should be treated as consistently as possible," the scientists write.

Compressed air clears the airways

The therapy is simple, even if it takes a bit of getting used to: A device uses a special breathing mask to direct air at higher pressure into the sleeper's airways, thus clearing the airways. "Continuous Positive Airway Pressure", or CPAP for short, is effective, but many patients find it annoying. Patients who suffer from less severe sleep apnea, in particular, can quickly leave the mask off.

The study results could encourage affected women and men with shorter breathing stops to use CPAP anyway - even if their sleep apnea is only mild or moderate.

Around two to four percent of adults in Germany suffer from sleep apnea. When the muscles of the soft palate relax during sleep, the tongue falls back and closes the airways. The sleeper gets too little or no more air. Then the blood pressure climbs and the oxygen concentration in the blood drops rapidly. The respiratory arrest can last ten seconds to two minutes and occur up to 100 times a night.

Fatigue, poor performance, risk of accidents

Those affected are tired, exhausted and unable to concentrate during the day, although they have slept long enough. Performance suffers considerably and the risk of accidents increases. Sleep apnea also increases the risk of mental illnesses such as depression and anxiety disorders.

In the long term, there is also a risk of cardiovascular problems such as high blood pressure, heart failure, coronary artery disease, cardiac arrhythmias and, ultimately, heart attacks. Patients are also more likely to develop diabetes and kidney failure. All of this increases the risk of premature death three to four times.

Snoring and sleep apnea also increase with age. Overweight people are particularly affected: around 80 percent of patients with sleep apnea syndrome are too fat. If they manage to lose weight, the pauses in breathing usually also improve.

Tags:  nourishment fitness sleep