Science & Technology, UK (Commonwealth Union) – The relationship between sleep and asthma is a complex one. Asthma is a chronic respiratory disease characterized by inflammation and narrowing of the airways, leading to difficulty breathing, wheezing, coughing, and chest tightness.
Recent research has indicated that healthy sleeping is linked to a reduced risk of asthma and the identification of sleep disruptions early could possibly reduce risks regardless of age.
It was revealed that low quality sleep could enhance an individual’s genetic susceptibility to asthma, by possibly doubling their chances of getting a diagnosis for asthma. This was revealed in a large UK Biobank study, appearing in the journal BMJ Open Respiratory Research.
The association between an individuals sleep pattern and reduced risk for asthma, was the basis for scientists to further explore the possibility of treating sleep disruptions earlier to lower the risks regardless of genetic predisposition.
Poor sleep quality has often been associated in general with worse asthma control and increased asthma symptoms. Sleep deprivation can lead to increased inflammation, which can exacerbate asthma symptoms. Additionally, sleep apnea, a condition in which breathing repeatedly stops and starts during sleep, is more common in people with asthma and can further disrupt sleep and worsen asthma symptoms.
Hence many experts had focused on people with asthma to prioritize good sleep hygiene, including maintaining a regular sleep schedule, avoiding caffeine and alcohol before bed, and creating a comfortable sleep environment. There was also a general focus of working closely with a healthcare provider to manage asthma symptoms and medications to minimize disruptions to sleep.
In attempt to further explore the links between bad sleep and asthma researchers took into account 455,405 UK Biobank participants who were between the ages of 38 and 73 while confirming their participation between 2006 and 2010.
The participants requested to give details on their sleep patterns, based on 5 specific traits, that included the early or late chronotype sleep duration; insomnia; snoring; and excessive daytime sleepiness.
The definition of healthy sleep patterns was early chronotype; clocking up seven to nine hours of sleep each night; never or rare insomnia; no snoring; as well as no regular daytime sleepiness.
While taking into account the responses, 73,223 individuals had the criteria that has a healthy sleep pattern; 284,267 with intermediate sleep patterns; along with 97,915 an unhealthy sleep pattern.
The genetic make-up consists of the entire UK Biobank list of individuals that took part, which is regularly mapped, and a genetic asthma risk score for every individual of the 455,405 in this research was put together according to the number of genetic variants that is linked with asthma in their genome.
Roughly one in three participants had the marking as ‘high’ genetic risk along with another third as ‘intermediate’ risk. The others had the marking of ‘low’ risk.
The individuals that took part in the respiratory health was monitored up to the date of an asthma diagnosis, death, or till a specified date, whichever came 1st.
As the tracking proceeded just under nine years, 17,836 individuals had an asthma diagnosis. They had a higher chance of possibly influential risk factors compared to those who did not get a diagnosis for the condition.
These included lower levels of education along with an elevated likelihood of unhealthy sleep traits as well as patterns; obesity; higher genetic asthma risk scores; higher levels of smoking together with drinking; hypotension, diabetes, depression, acid reflux; as well as higher air pollution exposure.
The researchers indicated that taking into account that the UK Biobank just gave information on 38–73-year-olds, the effect on children and younger adults is still not clear, also taking into account that the findings consisted of just individuals of European ancestry. Finally, the UK Biobank may have had a ‘healthy volunteer’ bias when chosen.
The researchers however indicated that bad sleeping patterns together with increased genetic susceptibility yielded a more than twofold asthma risk.
