Sleep disorders such as insomnia or snoring are associated with an increased risk of developing glaucoma and suffering from blindness, according to researchers.
- According to a 2019 study by Public Health France, a quarter of French people are in sleep debt and 13.1% are chronic insomniacs. The French sleep an hour and a half less on average than 50 years ago, according to Inserm.
- In France, 800,000 people are undergoing treatment for glaucoma, but 400,000 to 500,000 have this eye disease without knowing it. Without treatment, glaucoma can progress to irreversible blindness.
Sleep disorders, the daily life of one in three French people according to Insermhave devastating effects on short and long-term health: irritability, drowsiness, chronic fatigue, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, Alzheimer’s disease… A new study even suggests that poor sleep could increase the risk of losing sight cause of glaucoma, a chronic eye disease that affects at least 800,000 people in France.
Poor sleep is still associated with an increased risk of glaucoma
As part of their work, validated by their peers and published in the medical journal BMJ Open, the researchers analyzed sleep statistics based on questionnaires completed by more than 400,000 UK Biobank participants, aged 40 to 69 when recruited between 2006 and 2010. A sleep duration of 7 to 9 hours per day was defined as normal. The volunteers were classified according to whether they slept too much, or too little, were rather “in the morning” Where “night owls”suffered from insomnia (and what types) or drowsiness (and how often).
Their data was then compared to their medical and autopsy records. During a follow-up period of about ten years, 8,690 cases of glaucoma were listed, mostly in seniors, men, chronic smokers and people with hypertension or diabetes.
As a result, poor sleep is always associated with an increased risk of glaucoma. Sleeping too short or too long, for example, would increase it by 8% compared to those who have a healthy sleep pattern. Insomniacs would be 13% more likely to be affected, as would sleepers who have a short/long sleep pattern. Those who suffer from drowsiness during the day (+10% at least) and snorers (4%) are also affected. On the other hand, the fact of being “in the morning” Where “of the night” does not affect a priori, as long as the rhythm is regular.
Too much internal eye pressure from haywire sleep
While the study merely observes the correlation without establishing a cause, the researchers offer some biological explanations for such an association. The first is that “internal pressure in the eye, a key factor in the development of glaucoma, increases when a person lies down and when sleep hormones go haywire, as happens with insomnia”can we read in a communicated researchers.
Depression and anxiety, which often go hand in hand with troubled sleep, can also increase internal eye pressure,”possibly due to dysregulated cortisol production”. Finally, “repeated or prolonged episodes of low cellular oxygen levels, caused by sleep apnea (sudden cessation of breathing during sleep), could directly damage the optic nerve.”
Scientists point to the need for sleep therapy in people at high risk for glaucoma, as well as eye checks in people with chronic sleep disorders to check for early signs of the disease, which is the second leading cause of blindness in developed countries after age-related macular degeneration.