Exercise may help reduce symptoms of a common sleep disorder and improve brain function, a small study finds.
Exercise training could be a useful supplemental treatment for people with moderate to severe obstructive sleep apnea, the research showed. The condition is characterized by loud snoring and disrupted breathing and can raise the risk for heart disease, stroke and cognitive decline. It is typically treated with continuous positive airway pressure, or CPAP, a machine that pushes air through a mask into the airway to keep it open while a person sleeps.
“Exercise training appears to be an attractive and adjunctive (add-on) non-pharmacological treatment,” said lead investigator Linda Massako Ueno-Pardi, an associate professor at the School of Arts, Science and Humanities at the University of São Paulo in Brazil. She also is a research collaborator at the university’s Heart Institute and Institute of Psychiatry, Faculty of Medicine.
Estimates show obstructive sleep apnea affects roughly 9% to 38% of U.S. adults, though many cases are thought to be undiagnosed. It is more common in men than women and becomes more prevalent as people age.
According to a scientific statement by the American Heart Association published in June, between 40% and 80% of people with cardiovascular disease have sleep apnea.