0323 Is Snoring Associated with Lower Sleep Quality? If Yes, Does the Association Depend on Sleep Apnea? (2024)

Introduction

Snoring, as a common manifestation of sleep apnea, has often been used as a surrogate parameter for apnea. Significant associations were found between snoring and daytime sleepiness and cardiovascular conditions. The goal of this research is to use objective sleep data collected by the Sleep Number platform and survey responses to examine the relationship between snoring and sleep quality depending on the presence of treated or untreated apnea.

Methods

An IRB-approved survey, which included demographics and questions about sleep and its associated disorders, was presented to a cohort of Sleep Number (SN) customers during the period between June 12 to 26, 2023. Objective data collected by the SN platform included sleep duration, restful sleep, sleep latency, mean respiration rate, mean heart rate, mean heart rate variability, and sleep quality. The latter considers a demographic dependent aggregation of sleep duration, restful sleep and cardiorespiratory activity. Data were collected May 1st - June 30-2023, and were augmented by survey responses. Four groups were defined for analysis HNS: non-snorers reporting no sleep disorder, HES: snorers reporting no sleep disorders, TAS: snorers with treated apnea, and UAS: snorers with untreated apnea. Analysis of variance (ANOVA) was performed to identify any significant objective data differences between the groups. A second analysis focused on identifying the specific metric showing significant differences.

Results

The demographic responder composition per group was HNS 2454 (1717F/734M) individuals aged 53.9 (SD: 15.0) years-old, HES: 4702 (2626F/2069M) individuals aged 55.1 (SD: 13.5) years-old, TAS: 1784 (679F/1103M) individuals aged 59.7 (SD: 12.0) years-old, and UAS: 134 (59F/75M) individuals aged 59.4 (SD: 10.9) years-old. The ANOVA revealed significant objective data differences between groups. Only sleep quality showed significant group differences. Quality decreased significantly with respect to the HNS reference. Healthy snorers had a 0.96% lower quality, snorers with treated apnea had 1.8% lower quality, and snorers with untreated apnea had 3.9% lower quality.

Conclusion

Compared to healthy non-snorers, sleep quality quantification by a smart bed suggests a gradual decrease for healthy snorers, snorers with treated apnea, and snorers with untreated apnea.

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