In the study, Johns Hopkins researchers collected data from more
than 6,000 middle-aged men and women with sleep apnea or sleep related
breathing disorders where snoring is a major symptom. They found
that those with more severe cases had a higher risk of having high
blood pressure.
Sleep Apnea is common and approximately 12 million Americans have
sleep apnea, a breathing disorder with interruptions of breathing
during sleep which can last from 5 to 50 breathing pauses per hour,
each lasting a minimum of 10 seconds but can last up to a couple
minutes. Snoring prevalence in sleep apnea cases occurs about 60
percent of the time. The most common treatment is CPAP, continuous
positive airway pressure, a procedure in which a sleeping patient
wears a face mask that pushes air through the nasal passages and
acts as a splint to keep the airway open. Sleep apnea leads to a
person experiencing fragmented sleep resulting in not having fully
restful sleep causing memory loss, irritability, and extreme fatigue
in some sufferers.
“The mechanisms underlying the association between sleep-disordered
breathing and hypertension are not entirely clear” the study concluded.
However, it did say, they may include oxygen loss to the blood which
results in an increased contraction of blood vessels and in general
more work and activity by the a person's sympathetic nervous system.
This is great news. It has always been thought that there
was a relationship between Apnea and hypertension in the sleep community,
however it was never officially recognized by the rest of the medical
community. This has been evident on Sleepnet.com's Sleep
Apnea Forums for years. So we are making huge strides with studies
like these to help inform not only physicians but also the greater
public about the dangers of sleep disorders.
Sandman
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