Women with both sleep problems and snoring show objective impairment of sleep

• Published in: Sleep medicine Vol. 51; pp. 80 - 84
• Main Authors: Åkerstedt, Torbjörn, Schwarz, Johanna, Gruber, Georg, Theorell-Haglöw, Jenny, Lindberg, Eva
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier B.V 01.11.2018
• Subjects: Disturbed sleep; Medicin och hälsovetenskap; Polysomnography; Sleep quality ratings; Polysomnography; Disturbed sleep; Sleep quality ratings
• ISSN: 1389-9457; 1878-5506; 1878-5506
• DOI: 10.1016/j.sleep.2018.07.004

Combined insomnia and obstructive sleep apnea has been the focus of considerable research with respect to its health effects. A related issue is whether sleep disturbances in combination with snoring might exert effects on objective sleep variables in the non-clinical general population. The purpose of the present study was to investigate the polysomnographical characteristics of individuals who had sought medical help for both disturbed sleep and for snoring. No previous work of this type has been carried out. For this study we used a representative set of data of 384 women with one night of in-home PSG. We identified those individuals who had sought medical help for sleep problems (SL), individuals that had sought help for snoring (SN), as well as those that had sought help for either both (Combined), or for neither (Control). Our results yielded an N of 46, 16, 21, and 301 individuals, respectively. A one-factor analysis of variance showed significant main effects on N1% (F = 10.2, p < 0.001), N3% (F = 2.7, p < 0.05), AHI/h (F = 5.5, p < 0.001), and a delta power measure (F = 3.8, p < 0.05). The combined group showed significantly higher levels than the other groups for N1% (29% vs < 21%), AHI/h (19/h vs < 10/h) and lower levels for N3%, and a measure of delta power. Reported sleep quality measures did not show the same pattern, since the highest/lowest value were found for either the group presenting snoring alone or sleep problems alone. We concluded that individuals who had sought help for both insomnia and snoring showed impaired sleep in terms of PSG and that this was not reflected in ratings of sleep or health. This suggests that simultaneous sleep disturbances and snoring may potentiate each other to cause impaired sleep, yet the mechanism still needs to be elucidated. •Seeking medical help for both snoring and sleep problems is associated with a large increase in N1%, and AHI.•Seeking medical help for both snoring and sleep problems is associated with a decrease in N3% and delta power.•Subjective sleep quality ratings were lowest in individuals who had sought help for sleep problems.•Reported snoring frequency was highest among individuals who had sought help for snoring.•It is suggested that having sought medical help for both snoring and sleep problems potentiates sleep impairment.