Silent sleep danger for smokers uncovered in world-first study
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In a first study of its kind, scientists from the Heart Research Institute (HRI) have made the link between amounts of nicotine in the blood and the amount of time people have less oxygen while they’re sleeping.
Sleep apnoea occurs when a person’s throat and upper airway become partly or completely blocked during sleep, causing short periods where breathing stops.
In a new paper published in ESC Heart Failure, HRI scientists found increases in nicotine levels were associated with a 2.3 minute increase in the time spent with oxygen saturations below 90 per cent.
One of the markers of severity of sleep apnoea is time spent with an oxygen saturation less than 90 per cent.
Lead researcher Dr John O’Sullivan, of HRI’s Cardiometabolic Disease Group, said this meant that for every cigarette a person smoked, they were more likely to have ‘dangerously low’ levels of oxygen.
‘People who spend more time with an oxygen saturation less than 90 per cent end up with more cardiovascular death than...
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