Snoring and Insomnia May Predict Metabolic Syndrome

Previous studies have demonstrated an association between common sleep complaints, such as snoring, difficulty falling asleep, and unrefreshing sleep, and an increased risk of cardiovascular disease.  Wendy M. Troxel, from the University of Pittsburgh (Pennsylvania, USA), and colleagues studied the role of such sleep complains on the development of the metabolic syndrome, a major risk factor for cardiovascular disease. The team studied data collected in the Heart SCORE study, involving 812 men and women, ages 45 to 74 years. The researchers found that the risk of developing the metabolic syndrome over a three-year follow-up period was more than two times higher in adults who reported frequent loud snoring.  This risk also was increased by 80% in adults who reported having difficulty falling asleep and by 70% in those who reported that their sleep was unrefreshing.  Analyses of the five individual components of the metabolic syndrome revealed that loud snoring significantly predicted the development of high blood sugar and low HDL cholesterol. As well, loud snoring continued to predict the development of the metabolic syndrome after accounting for the number of metabolic abnormalities present at baseline. According to the authors, this suggests that loud snoring may be a causal risk factor cardiometabolic dysregulation. Writing that: “Difficulty falling asleep, unrefreshing sleep, and, particularly, loud snoring, predicted the development of metabolic syndrome in community adults,:” the team concludes that: “Evaluating sleep symptoms can help identify individuals at risk for developing metabolic syndrome.”