Snoring Signs

A January 2024 study by St James’s University Hospital, Leeds, said,

• “Up to one fifth of collisions on the road may be caused by fatigue or sleepiness. Many obstructive sleep apnoea (OSA) patients drive either for personal or for professional reasons and there is good evidence to suggest that some patients are at increased risk of collisions on the road.”

• “Doctors are often asked to make recommendations about their patient’s fitness to drive. This can be challenging as it can have major implications on a patient’s livelihood, particularly if they are a professional driver. However, there is a duty of care on doctors to discourage patients from driving if are at high risk of causing a collision.”

•  “Our research suggests that untreated OSA patients often use coping strategies that could be surrogate markers of sleepiness. Asking about these strategies in the clinic may help doctors identifying patients who are at risk of driving incidents and to advise appropriately.”

•  “Obstructive sleep apnoea is of high public health relevance due to its high prevalence, symptoms that impair quality of life and potential cardiovascular consequences. In addition to choking, fragmented sleep and unrefreshing sleep, possible symptoms include difficulty concentrating, tiredness and a tendency to fall asleep during the day. Fortunately, awareness of OSA has increased somewhat in recent years. Today, treatment recommendations are based on the different risk factors, symptom groups and cardiovascular consequences of certain OSA types. Various treatment approaches geared to different types of OSA can be offered to successfully treat the symptoms, including daytime sleepiness.”

Quality of sleep link to fatty liver disease

A July 2022 study by the Guangdong Provincial Key Laboratory of Food, Nutrition and Health and Sun Yat-sen University in Guangzhou, China said,  “People with poor nighttime sleep and prolonged daytime napping have the highest risk for developing fatty liver disease,”  and “Our study found a moderate improvement in sleep quality was related to a 29% reduction in the risk for fatty liver disease.”

Poor “sleep hygiene” included

• late bedtime

• snoring

• daytime napping for over 30 minutes

“Our study provides evidence that even a moderate improvement in sleep quality is sufficient to reduce the risk for fatty liver disease, especially in those with unhealthy lifestyles,” 

“Given that large proportions of subjects suffering from poor sleep quality are underdiagnosed and undertreated, our study calls for more research into this field and strategies to improve sleep quality.”

Sleep Apnea and Tongue Fat

In a January 2020 study by the Perelman School of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania it was found,

• "Most clinicians, and even experts in the sleep apnea world, have not typically focused on fat in the tongue for treating sleep apnea.”

• “Now that we know tongue fat is a risk factor and that sleep apnea improves when tongue fat is reduced, we have established a unique therapeutic target that we've never had before.”

• "Primary care doctors, and perhaps even dentists, should be asking about snoring and sleepiness in all patients, even those who have a normal body mass index, as, based on our data, they may also be at risk for sleep apnea,"