snoring and stopping breathing during sleep associated with depression, even in people whose symptoms do not meet the criteria for a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea, a new study has found.
Snorting and stopping breathing during sleep are associated with depression, even in people whose symptoms do not meet the criteria for a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea, a new study has found.
Researchers studied 9,714 men and women participating in an ongoing national health survey by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. They used interviews about sleep symptoms and a well-validated questionnaire that screens adults for depression. The report appears in the April issue of the journal Sleep.
Among those with a diagnosis of obstructive sleep apnea, depression was more than twice as common among men and more than five times as common among women, compared with those who did not have the condition.
But the researchers also found that those whose partners reported that they snorted or stopped breathing were also significantly more likely to have depression, with the likelihood increasing with frequency of symptoms.
Men who were affected five or more nights a week were almost four times as likely to suffer depression as those who never had the symptoms. Women with these sleep troubles were more than twice as likely to be depressed.
Anne G. Wheaton, a C.D.C. epidemiologist who led the study, said that the symptoms may lead to lighter sleep and a reduction of oxygen to the brain.