Sleep Apnea and Depression—A Terrifying Connection

Sleep apnea has a long list of life-threatening effects, such as high blood pressure, heart attack, and stroke.

Depression is even more dangerous, with a survival rate lower than some cancers.

Could one of these diseases cause the other? That would be truly terrifying. A new study in BMC Public Health examined this question.

Information was gathered from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) spanning from 2005 to 2018, which involved a total of 9,817 participants.

To determine the presence of sleep apnea, participants completed a questionnaire on sleep disorders.

Depressive symptoms were evaluated using the 9-item Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9).

Predictably, those with sleep apnea were more likely to be older, male, obese, have shorter sleep durations, drink alcohol, have diabetes, have high blood pressure, have coronary heart disease, and have had a stroke.

The analysis yielded the following results about depression.

1. Among participants who did not have sleep apnea, 6.6% had a depression score of 10 or more, indicating depression, whereas 13.7% of participants with sleep apnea had a depression score of 10 or more.

2. Those with sleep apnea were 1.36 times more likely to experience depression.

3. The more severe the sleep apnea was, the more severe the depressive symptoms were.

4. Sleep apnea was linked to increased depression in all subgroups of participants, except in those with coronary artery disease.

5. The link between sleep apnea and depression was stronger among overweight and obese participants than among other participants.

These results show a terrifying connection between sleep apnea and depression.

Not everyone with sleep apnea suffers from depression. However, you might want to consider how it’s affecting your mood.

Sleep apnea is life-threatening and needs to be healed. Fortunately, it can be done as soon as today, using simple, three-minutes throat exercises explained here…