Has containment had an impact on the treatment of patients with sleep apnea? The answer is, fortunately, rather negative: the treatments were maintained by 96% of the respondents and the durations of use kept intact by 86% of the patients, underlines a study of Sleep Apnea Alliances, an association whose mission is to improve the screening and the effectiveness of the treatment of people with apnea.
What is sleep apnea?
Sleep apnea is a chronic disease that affects approximately 3 to 4 million people in France, and of which only 1.2 million are diagnosed. It has a big impact on the quality of life. It is manifested by sleep interrupted regularly by respiratory stops of more than 10 seconds.
These respiratory pauses are responsible for hypoxemia (decrease in oxygen in the blood), harmful to the brain, the heart … They are attributed headaches, memory problems and vigilance. They cause micro-arousals which install chronic fatigue, a source of irritability and daytime sleepiness. Frequent apneas would even promote glaucoma by raising the blood pressure ocular.
So when the lifestyle suddenly changed with the confinement, the doctors worried about what impact this might have on the continuous positive airway pressure (PCC) treatment that is given to the patients and if the latter had not been. tempted to interrupt their treatment. Alliance Apnées du Sommeil, in partnership with the team from the Grenoble University Hospital sleep center, therefore carried out a study of unprecedented magnitude during confinement on patients suffering from sleep apnea. This survey, which brings together the responses and testimonies of 14,000 people, made it possible to understand the experiences of patients and to check whether they had changed their treatment.
Sleep likes regularity
Astonishment, confinement had a rather positive effect on sleep apnea : it improved the chronobiological benchmarks of patients. Marc Sapène, pulmonologist and president of the Alliances Apnées du Sommeil association explains it simply: “sleep above all likes regularity”. Containment has sometimes changed how long patients sleep. 32% of respondents said they went to bed later, and 25% said they got up later.
That said, the context of the coronavirus crisis was not very reassuring for patients with this chronic disease. Many expressed the need for reinforced support at this time. Patients would thus have liked to receive more information on the use of treatment during a health crisis, a need for training in techniques to better manage the stress and anxiety linked to the pandemic, or to facilitate falling asleep.
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