One in four women dies of heart disease in the United States. A hardening or blockage of the coronary arteries, it’s the number one killer of women each year. There are several known risk factors, including high blood pressure, high cholesterol, and obesity, which doctors screen for and treat. But a lesser-known risk factor is obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), characterized by periods of interrupted sleep due to difficulty breathing. Because men are typically screened for OSA, they are more likely to receive diagnosis and treatment. But a growing awareness around women and OSA could help reduce incidents of heart disease.

While more women are receiving an OSA diagnosis than in recent years, the numbers remain disproportionate: three to five times more men than women are diagnosed. Investigators from Brigham and Women’s Hospital and Yale School of Medicine set out to understand this disparity and its causes and concluded that women experience OSA during dream sleep, which is associated with adverse outcomes, including cardiovascular disease. (1)

“Over the years, I’ve felt strongly that sleep apnea may be an exemplar of a chronic disease that may manifest differently in men and women, from how it presents to its underlying physiology, with implications for how it should be treated,” said senior author Susan Redline, MD, MPH, a senior physician in the Division of Sleep and Circadian Disorders in the Departments of Medicine and Neurology at the Brigham. “Here, we begin to drill down to understand how sleep apnea may differ and how common scoring approaches may underestimate sleep apnea in women.” (2)

With this growing awareness around how sleep apnea affects women, screening and treatment can begin to address this serious risk to women’s health. “We are more and more appreciating that sleep apnea is a heterogeneous disease,” said Christine Won, MD, MSc, director of the Women’s Sleep Health program at Yale School of Medicine. “It’s important to understand how it affects men and women differently. Understanding sex-specific mechanisms allow us to target therapy and is expected to lead to better outcomes.” (3)

The good news is that with better sleep apnea screenings for women, we could begin to see a decline in heart disease. Recognizing the direct link between heart disease and OSA, BetterNight has long advocated for education and easy access to better screening processes that lead to improved health outcomes. Understanding that sleep deprivation is a public health epidemic, we created a direct-to-patient treatment and diagnosis system that puts patients on a path to better sleep within as little as 10 days. Beyond diagnosis and initial treatment, BetterNight provides ongoing coaching and support to ensure successful outcomes for patients. 

 For more information about how BetterNight can help reduce the incidents of heart disease in women, email us at info@betternight.com or call 1 (866) 801-9440.

Footnotes:

1. Medicalexpress.com (“Study suggests women may be undertreated for obstructive sleep apnea”)

2. Medicalexpress.com (“Study suggests women may be undertreated for obstructive sleep apnea”)

3. Medicalexpress.com (“Study suggests women may be undertreated for obstructive sleep apnea”)