Can Sleepless Nights Make You Breathless?

Studies show that lack of sleep can increase the risk of developing asthma.

Highlights:

Insomnia can increase the risk of asthma
There is a three-fold risk of asthma if you suffer from insomnia
Insomnia tends to directly impact the airway, which can result in respiratory diseases like asthma

People who have symptoms of insomnia are more likely to acquire asthma. Hence, it can be said that insomnia can be a trigger for asthma.

Asthma affects roughly 300 million people globally, with smoking, obesity, and air pollution being key risk factors. Recently, symptoms of depression and anxiety have been linked to an increased chance of getting asthma in adulthood ().

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‘As insomnia is a manageable condition, an increased focus on the adverse health effects of insomnia could be helpful in the prevention of asthma.’

 Dr. Linn Beate Strand of the Norwegian University of Science and Technology's Department of Public Health and General Practice explained, "Insomnia, defined as difficulties initiating or maintaining sleep, or having poor sleep quality, is common among asthma patients, but whether insomnia patients have a higher risk of developing asthma at a later stage has not been thoroughly investigated."

Insomnia and Asthma: A Sleepless and a Breathless Link

Researchers evaluated the relationship between sleeplessness and the likelihood of acquiring asthma using data from the Nord-Trndelag Health Study (HUNT), an ongoing health study of the adult population of the county of Nord-Trndelag, Norway. The researchers employed statistical analysis to determine the risk of asthma in 17,927 people aged 20 to 65 years old. Participants were asked to report sleep initiation issues, sleep maintenance issues, and poor sleep quality. They also reported any asthma symptoms at the beginning and end of the research.

Those who reported trouble falling asleep ‘frequently’ or ‘nearly every night’ in the previous month had a 65% and 108% greater risk of having asthma over the next 11 years, respectively.

Similarly, those who reported waking up too early and being unable to return to sleep ‘frequently’ or ‘nearly every night’ had a 92% and 36% higher chance of having asthma, respectively. Those who reported poor quality sleep more than once a week had a 94% greater risk of acquiring asthma.

Chronic Insomnia can Increase the Risk of Asthma by Three Folds

When the researchers looked at patients with chronic insomnia, i.e., those who had reported one or more insomnia symptoms at the start of the study and ten years earlier, they discovered that those with chronic insomnia were more than three times more likely to develop asthma than those who did not have chronic insomnia.

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Dr. Ben Brumpton, lead author of the study, from the HUNT Research Centre, Department of Public Health and General Practise, NTNU, and Department of Thoracic and Occupational Medicine, Trondheim University Hospital, commented: "A key finding in our study is that those people with chronic insomnia had more than three times the risk of developing asthma, compared to those without chronic insomnia, which suggests that any changes in the body due to insomnia may accumulate and result in more severe harmful effects on the airways."

Reference:

Prospective study of insomnia and incident asthma in adults: the HUNT study - (https://erj.ersjournals.com/content/49/2/1601327)

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