Sleeping in on the weekend? You could be triggering ‘social apnoea'
Published Wednesday in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine, an Australian-led team of researchers analysed global data from more than 70,000 people, finding a significant and consistent increase in obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) on weekends.
What is obstructive sleep apnoea?
Obstructive sleep apnoea is a sleep disorder in which airways are partially or completely blocked during sleep.
The condition is associated with higher all-cause mortality, and if left untreated, increases the risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, type 2 diabetes, cognitive impairment and motor vehicle crashes.
Common symptoms include daytime sleepiness, loud snoring and pauses in breathing during sleep others may notice.
What did this new study find?
Professor Danny Eckert, director of Flinders' Health and Medical Research Sleep Health Centre and senior author on the paper, says the research was significant for its scale.
Most clinical diagnoses of sleep apnoea are based on only a single night's data, usually collected on a weekday. By collecting data from participants with an under-mattress tracker, they were 'able to measure people over multiple nights, and in this case, on average using about one year's worth of data,' says Eckert.
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