Sleep-disordered breathing in alcoholics

Sleep apnea and related disorders contribute to disturbed sleep in abstinen t alcoholics, In an earlier report from our group, sleep-disordered breathi ng was common and increased with age in a cohort of 75 abstinent alcoholics . We now report an extension of the previous work that includes studies of an additional 103 abstinent alcoholics undergoing treatment for alcoholism (total sample = 188) acid a comparison group of 87 normal subjects. The pre sence and severity of sleep-disordered breathing was assessed with polysomn ography, Among the alcoholics, sleep-disordered breathing (defined as 10 or more apneas plus hypopneas per hour of sleep) was present in 3% of 91 subj ects under age 40, 17% of 83 subjects age 40 to 59, and 50% of 14 subjects age 60 or over. Subjects with sleep-disordered breathing were more likely t o be male and had more severe sleep disruption and nocturnal hypoxemia and more complaints related to daytime sleepiness than subjects without sleep-d isordered breathing. In a multiple linear regression analysis, age and body mass index were significant predictors of the presence of sleep-disordered breathing, whereas smoking history and duration of heavy drinking were not predictors after controlling for the effects of age and body mass index, O ur findings suggest that sleep-disordered breathing contributes significant ly to sleep disturbance in a substantial proportion of older alcoholics and that symptomatic sleep-disordered breathing increases with age in alcoholi cs. Sleep-disordered breathing, when combined with existing cardiovascular risk factors, may contribute to adverse health consequences in alcoholics.