A groundbreaking study published in a Nature journal has revealed a critical yet often overlooked risk factor in cardiovascular health: poorly managed sleep apnea.
Conducted by Flinders University, the research points to the significant dangers posed by Obstructive Sleep Apnea (OSA), especially when it varies widely from night to night.
OSA is a common sleep disorder where breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, affecting about one billion people worldwide.
This study, led by Dr. Bastien Lechat, emphasizes that regardless of the overall average severity of OSA, individuals with high variability in their sleep apnea night-to-night are at a much higher risk – between 50% to 70% – of having uncontrolled hypertension (high blood pressure) and variable blood pressure.
These conditions are known to increase the risk of heart-related events, all-cause mortality, damage to vascular organs, atrial fibrillation, and dementia.
The study’s innovative approach used under-mattress sleep sensor technology, enabling non-invasive, multi-night monitoring of sleep in 12,287 adults over approximately 180 nights.
This method also included about 30 repeat blood pressure tests, allowing the researchers to measure both the severity of OSA and its night-to-night variation.
The findings are significant because they challenge the standard clinical testing for OSA, which typically involves a single-night assessment.
This one-night snapshot can lead to misdiagnosis or underestimation of the condition’s severity, as it may not capture the fluctuating nature of OSA in many individuals.
Professor Danny Eckert, a senior researcher and director at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute (FHMRI) Sleep Health, highlights the importance of recognizing the considerable night-to-night variation in OSA severity.
This variability, as the study suggests, could be a key factor contributing to cardiovascular diseases, one of the leading causes of death globally.
The research underscores the need for new, simplified monitoring approaches to improve the diagnosis and management of OSA.
The current standard, which relies on single-night diagnostics, is labor-intensive and costly, and as this study shows, may not be sufficient to capture the full extent of the risk posed by OSA.
In simpler terms, this study is like uncovering a hidden enemy in the fight against heart disease.
People with inconsistent sleep apnea patterns could be walking around with a ticking time bomb of uncontrolled blood pressure, not fully aware of the danger they’re in.
This research is a call to action for better, more comprehensive ways to diagnose and manage sleep apnea, ultimately aiming to safeguard cardiovascular health.
The research findings can be found in npj Digital Medicine.
Copyright © 2023 Knowridge Science Report. All rights reserved.
