FUKUOKA, Japan, Dec. 16 (UPI) -- Snoring intensity is correlated with subjective sleepiness in patients with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, a Japanese researcher says.
Dr. Hiroshi Nakano of the Fukuoka National Hospital in Fukuoka, Japan, says that the results of the study indicate that daytime sleepiness is affected not only by the severity of obstructive sleep apnea, but also by the loudness of snoring.
"The results were not so surprising, because previous studies in general population have shown an independent relationship between the degree of snoring, by a questionnaire, and sleepiness," Nakano says in a statement.
More than 500 patients referred to Fukuoka National Hospital for suspected obstructive sleep apnea and underwent diagnostic polysomnograph between September 2002 and January 2005. Subjective sleepiness and snoring intensity was assessed.
The findings, published in the Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine, suggests that snoring intensity is significantly correlated with age, body mass index and apnea-hypopnea -- an index of severity of sleep apnea.
Although sleepiness is one of the most important symptoms of obstructive sleep apnea, the authors report that the correlation between the degree of sleepiness and the severity of obstructive sleep apnea has been found to be relatively weak in many studies.
