Exercise & Sleep Apnea Studies

Obstructive sleep apnea is a serious condition characterized by repetitive obstruction of the upper airway during sleep. According to the" Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine," It is a common syndrome, estimated to affect 4 percent of middle-aged men and 2 percent of middle aged women. There is evidence to suggest that excess weight is a precipitating factor and, as a result, there have been many recent studies examining the effect of exercise on patients with sleep apnea.

Characteristics

A person with obstructive sleep apnea suffers from significant sleep fragmentation. If your airways are obstructed, you may tend to snore or even experience pauses in breathing. Along with the obvious danger of the potential to stop breathing in the night, patients with obstructive sleep apnea report daytime sleepiness, psychomotor deficits, increased risk of having motor vehicle crashes, and lost work productivity.

Exercise Study 1

A study done by the Institute for Breathing and Sleep and the Physiotherapy Research Foundation, Australia, published in the May 2009 issue of the "Journal of Clinical Sleep Medicine," asked 12 subjects with mild to moderate obstructive sleep apnea to participate in an exercise program. Ninety percent of the subjects were overweight or obese. The exercise program had participants doing resistance training three times per week for the duration of the 16 week study, and aerobic training four times per week from weeks 5 to 16. The subjects lost 12.9 percent of their baseline total body weight. They reported significant improvements from sleep apnea symptoms through a sleep-specific questionnaire. While all participants considered themselves heavy snorers when they enrolled in the study, after four months, nine out of 10 subjects felt their snoring had improved noticeably. They also had a 7-percent increase in their maximal work load achieved and a 20 percent increase in peak oxygen consumption independent of weight loss.

Exercise Study 2

A 2003 study conducted by the Department of Population Health Sciences at the University of Wisconsin also saw a correlation between exercise and reduced symptoms of sleep disordered breathing. From 1989 to 1992, questionnaires were mailed out to obtain information on sleep problems and habits as well as exercise. Participants were invited to take part in overnight protocols and invited back every four years thereafter for follow-ups. The study, published in the journal "Sleep" in 2004, also concluded that there was a strong correlation between being overweight and sleep disordered breathing. Weight loss has many beneficial effects on the body and reduced symptoms of sleep apnea is one of them.

Oropharyngeal Exercises

In addition to cardiovascular and aerobic exercise, research in the "American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine" suggests the oropharyngeal exercises derived from speech therapy may be an effective treatment option for patients with moderate sleep apnea. In the study, 15 of 31 participants were part of a control group. The other 16 patients participated in three months of daily therapy, 30 minutes per day. These exercises worked the soft palate, tongue, and lateral pharyngeal wall. After the three months, patients exposed to therapy had significantly decreased their neck circumference, snoring symptoms and subjective sleepiness, and increased their quality of sleep score.

Exercise & Sleep Apnea Studies

Characteristics

Exercise Study 1

Exercise Study 2

Oropharyngeal Exercises

References

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