Does your partner’s snoring irritate you? It might be a sign they’re at risk of dying young
SNORING could be a sign you’re 60 per cent more likely to have a stroke, a study has found.
Sleep apnoea between the age of 20 and 50 increases the risk of heart problems that can lead to the deadly condition, as well as heart attacks, US researchers said.
A separate study showed the obstructive sleep apnoea – which causes loud snoring and waking up gasping for breath – also increases the risk of an irregular heartbeat by five times.
Researchers are calling for global screening of the heart health “red flag”.
Professor Sanjiv Narayan, of Stanford University, said: “Sleep apnoea is really common but we sort of ignore it because we think it’s trivial or just a little bit of a nuisance.
“Until now no one’s really shown the magnitude of the size of the risk. It is as high as for heart diseases.
“That’s what really surprised us. And also this is in the relatively young – if they had a stroke it would devastate young families.
“It could take them away from the workplace. It would destroy their lives for the next 40 years.”
Sleep apnoea is when your breathing stops because your airways become blocked while you sleep.
The most common type is OSA, which affects around 1.5million Brits.
Constant interruptions of breathing causes a drop in oxygen levels and poor sleep quality.
While awake, it can lead to tiredness, difficulty concentrating, mood swings and headaches first thing in the morning.
Leading experts drew from health records data on suburban Americans based on health checks from 2008 to 2022.
The study looking at irregular heartbeats, presented at the European Society of Cardiology congress in Amsterdam, found the risk associated with OSA dwarfed other known risk factors.
Those with chronic kidney disease were 3.7 times more at risk of developing, compared to a 5.2 times increased risk for OSA.
OSA was a much bigger risk factor for the heart condition than smoking which increased the risk of irregular heartbeats – known medically as atrial fibrillation – by a third.
The study found 7,500 had a recorded diagnosis of OSA and 4,500 then developed AF in the following years.
Professor Narayan said that while the studies could now prove definitively that sleep apnoea caused heart attacks and strokes, this is their working hypothesis.
He said: “Sleep apnoea increases the risk by five so that is something which is a big problem because the next thing is atrial fibrillation can increase the risk of stroke, days off work, and many other problems.
“When you are unable to breathe it raises the pressure in the lungs until you ultimately wake up gasping for breath.
“That puts a pressure load on the heart, which causes stretch in the heart chambers, and that could cause the atrial fibrillation.
“Another theory could be that the oxygen levels in the blood fall for 10s of seconds and that could put stress on the heart.”
Professor Francesco Cappuccio, chair of cardiovascular medicine at Warwick University, said: “OSA is a common chronic condition, often underdiagnosed.
“Untreated it can result in daytime fatigue, poor concentration, reduced performance, attentional failure and reduced quality of life.”
Dr Charles Pearman, consultant cardiologist at Manchester University Hospitals NHS Foundation Trust, said: “While a symptom of sleep apnoea is snoring, not all those who snore have sleep apnoea.
“This study suggests that sleep apnoea, a condition in which people briefly stop breathing whilst asleep, is a strong predictor of whether younger people will develop AF.”