The Effects of Ambient Temperature Changes on Severity of Obstructive Sleep Apnea and Autonomic Nervous System among Adult Patients

• Main Authors: Nai-Yu Liu, 劉乃瑜
• Other Authors: Cheryl C. H. Yang
• Format: Others
• Language: en_US
• Published: 2018
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/74wt4y

碩士 === 國立陽明大學 === 腦科學研究所 === 106 === Background and Aims: Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a prevalence of sleep breathing disorder. There are different treatment ways, and lifestyle modifications have been tested however the effect is limited. Moreover, the relationship between the sleep environment and OSA severity remains obscure. Aims and Hypotheses: The objective of this study is to investigate if the sleep ambient temperature (Ta) will affect the severity and autonomic nervous system among OSA patients. We hypothesizes that there is a positive correlation with OSA severity and Ta to heightened autonomic activity. Materials and Methods: 12 OSA participants were enrolled in this study. The 7-day sleep diary includes home Ta and apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) will record. Participants would stay in an experimental room four nights, a self-comfortable Ta as the first-night and a relatively cooler Ta (16 ℃), a comfortable Ta (26 ℃) and a warmer Ta (30 ℃) circumstances. The polysomnography and wireless oximeter would evaluate the sleep-related respiratory parameters. ECG signals were further used to analyze the heart rate variability. Results: In the autonomic nerves system, the parasympathetic activity increased in Ta 16 ℃ (p < 0.05); the sympathetic activity arose in Ta 30 ℃ (p < 0.05) among sleep stage N1 and N2. On the other hand, the respiratory data showed Ta 30 ℃ would have higher AHI during supine posture (p < 0.05). Moreover, we found that the near-body temperature (NBT) is highly positive correlation with AHI (r = 0.58, p = 0.025). Conclusions: Compared the Ta and NBT with autonomic nerves system activity and respiratory results, we found OSA severity has a positive correlation with Ta and NBT, and the autonomic nervous system played an important role.