The Face of Sleepiness: Improvement in Appearance after Treatment of Sleep Apnea

Dissatisfaction with cutaneous body image is directly correlated with insomnia severity: A prospective study in a non-clinical sample

“…In another study, 20 adults with obstructive sleep apnea had 3-dimensional digital photogrammetry before and !2 months after treatment with positive airway pressure (PAP) (4). Twenty-two blinded raters assessed the preand post-PAP facial images, and identified the post-PAP photos as more alert, more youthful and more attractive (4). The investigators' own inspections of the pre-and post-PAP images suggested a reduction in prominence of the forehead skin wrinkles (4).…”

“…The desire to look less fatigued and have more youthful appearing skin, is also reported to be one of the primary motivators for undergoing plastic surgery (2,5). In another study, 20 adults with obstructive sleep apnea had 3-dimensional digital photogrammetry before and !2 months after treatment with positive airway pressure (PAP) (4). Twenty-two blinded raters assessed the preand post-PAP facial images, and identified the post-PAP photos as more alert, more youthful and more attractive (4).…”

“…Cutaneous body image (CBI) is defined as the mental perception of the appearance of the skin, hair and nails (1). Recent studies have shown that sleep deprivation can have an impact on objective ratings of skin appearance (2)(3)(4). In one study, 40 observers rated 20 facial photographs of 10 healthy individuals after a normal night's sleep and after undergoing 31 h of sleep deprivation following a night with 5 h of sleep, without being informed about the purpose of the study.…”

Beauty CPAP: o impacto do tratamento da apneia obstrutiva do sono com aparelho de pressão aérea contínua sobre a percepção da idade e da aparência saudável, descansada e atraente num estudo prospectivo, randomizado, cruzado e placebo controlado

“…Outro estudo avaliando o efeito do tratamento do CPAP sobre a aparência de 20 pacientes com AOS, publicado após o início do presente estudo, demonstrou que os pacientes foram percebidos mais jovens, alertas e atraentes, pela comparação de fotografias obtidas antes e após 5,8 ± 1,8 meses de tratamento e apresentadas para avaliadores independentes (Chervin et al, 2013). Entretanto, como discutido pelos próprios autores daquele estudo, algumas limitações foram descritas, entre elas, o estudo não foi randomizado e controlado e as amostras de pacientes (N=20) e de avaliadores das fotografias (N=22) foram modestas em número.…”

“…O principal tratamento da AOS, que é capaz de reverter ou amenizar os efeitos associados à presença da doença (Kakkar & Berry, 2007;Marshall et al, 2006), é o uso do aparelho de pressão aérea positiva contínua (CPAP) durante o sono (Epstein et al, 2009 (Chervin et al, 2013).…”