Alcohol and Sleep-Related Breathing Disorder

Saturday April 28, 2007

People who have a tendency to have a sleep-related breathing disorder should avoid alcohol near bedtime, especially men, according to a study at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. Researchers found that for each increment of one drink per day, men were 25 percent more likely to have a mild or worse sleep-related breathing disorder.

Sleep related breathing disorders are a group of disorders that affect breathing while sleeping, causing disruptions of normal breathing patterns that occur only during sleep.

Paul E. Peppard, PhD, and his colleagues evaluated 775 men and 645 women for their alcohol consumption and a sleep-related breathing disorder. Their results were published in the the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine.

Not Significant in Women

The affect of alcohol on sleep-related breathing disorder in men was significant, but the researchers found that minimal to moderate alcohol consumption was not associated with an increase risk in women. The authors were not sure what caused the gender differences in their results.

"Experimental evidence is fairly consistent in demonstrating acute effects of alcohol exposure on initiating or exacerbating an sleep-related breathing disorder, perhaps by reducing upper airway patency via reduced dilatory muscle tone, or by blunted ventilatory response to hypoxia," said Peppard in a news release. "Based on the previous experimental evidence, men and women with an sleep-related breathing disorder, or those particularly susceptible to an SRBD, should be advised to avoid alcohol near bedtime."

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