Sleep pattern could determine risk of heart attack
Snoring can reveal hidden dangers in your heart.
New research shows that it’s not just sleep apnea that matters, but how much your symptoms fluctuate from night to night.
Sleep apnea is a common condition in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, often resulting in loud snoring, breathlessness, and extreme daytime fatigue.
If left untreated, it has been linked to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes.
But scientists at Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, say the real risk may come from how unpredictable the situation is.
In a study published in the journal SLEEP, researchers followed more than 3,000 adults for several months using under-bed sensors to monitor their breathing patterns at home.
They found that people whose symptoms changed significantly between nights were about a third more likely to have serious cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke or heart failure.
Chief writer Dr. Bastien Lechat said: “Many people assume that sleep apnea is stable, but the reality is very different.
“Some nights can be much worse than others, and these repeated ups and downs can put extra stress on the heart.”
Importantly, this increased risk was seen even in people whose condition appeared only mild on average.
Experts warn that standard overnight sleep tests can miss these fluctuations entirely.
Dr Lechat added: “Single-night sleep testing may falsely reassure some patients, as people with mild to average sleep apnea may still be at higher risk if their breathing problems change dramatically between nights.”
A second international study of nearly 30,000 people, published in Npj Digital Medicine, supported the findings.
It showed that severe sleep apnea, frequent snoring and high night-to-night variability are linked to faster aging of blood vessels, an early warning sign of heart disease.
Professor Danny Eckert said: “These night-to-night fluctuations can silently strain the heart and blood vessels over time, without being detected by standard tests.”
Researchers say sleep should be monitored over multiple nights, just like blood pressure or blood sugar.
