Impact of Nasal Continuous Positive Airway Pressure Therapy on the Quality of Life of Bed Partners of Patients With Obstructive Sleep Apnea Syndrome

Effect of sleeping alone on sleep quality in female bed partners of snorers

“…Conceivably, chronic exposure to noise at night may lead to alterations in sleep structure that cannot be eliminated by a single quiet night. Data on the effect of CPAP in the nonsnoring bed partner suggest a larger effect after o6 weeks [1] than after ,1 month [3]. …”

“…Among patients referred for snoring or suspected obstructive SAS and scheduled for surgical treatment of nasal obstruction, 40% had partners who slept in a separate room at least once a week [6], and in a population of SAS patients referred for initiation of CPAP therapy, 18% had partners who did not share their bed on a regular basis; however, these partners had worse anxiety and depression scores at baseline than the bedsharing partners [1]. In addition, in a recent study in a nonclinical population, having a bed partner with sleep-disordered breathing was not associated with poorer sleep quality than having a bed partner without sleep-disordered breathing [9].…”

“…leeping with a snoring partner has been reported to increase daytime feelings of stress, depression [1] and fatigue [2], although there were no consistent changes in quality of life evaluated through questionnaires [3,4] or in daytime sleepiness [4,5]. Poor sleep quality has been reported by more than twothirds of bed partners of snorers [3].…”

“…A few studies evaluated the sleep quality of those with bed partners whose sleep apnoea syndrome (SAS) was treated with continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) [1,3,4,7,8]. Improvements were noted in the nonsnoring partners' daytime sleepiness scores (which were within the normal range at baseline) and in anxiety scores, but not in depression scores, after 6-8 weeks of CPAP [1]. In one of the few studies supplying objective data, CPAP during the second half of the study night was associated with a decreased arousal index and increased sleep efficiency in the partners [8].…”

Simple snoring: Not quite so simple after all?

“…In addition to annoyance and disturbed sleep, snoring has also been shown to contribute to unilateral high-frequency hearing loss in bed-partners (90). Although little research has focused on simple snoring, research from the OSA literature has shown that sleeping with a partner with apnoea contributes to poor sleep and poor quality of life in the bedpartner (91). Another study examining changes in bedpartner depression, anxiety and sleepiness following radiofrequency tissue ablation in their snoring/OSA bedpartner, revealed reductions in depression in bedpartners of snorers (92).…”