Alternating sleeping arrangements as a coping strategy for snorers and their bed partners—A prospective study

Abstract

Background: Despite overwhelming evidence for gender differences in sleep quality as well as gender-specific changes of sleep parameters with respect to habitual sleeping arrangements, studies on snorers and their bed partners have ignored the influence of individual quality of sleep as a potential co-factor. Objective: The objective of this study was to record subjective and objective sleep parameters and to analyze the effects of alternating of sleeping arrangements in snorers and their bed partners. Methods: Habitual snorers and their bed partners were recruited via newspaper articles not stating the exact purpose of the study. Both filled out a 90-day sleep diary. During this time, we recorded subjective and objective sleep parameters in the snorers and their bed partners via wrist actigraphy and sleep diaries for 14 days. For statistical analysis, we used two-sided t-tests and Spearman’s Rho. Results: The dataset included 45 snorers (11 females) and 45 bed partners (34 females) with a mean age of 47 ± 13 and 43 ± 12 years. Screening for sleep apnea yielded snoring without OSAS, mild-, moderate- and severe OSAS in 27 (60%), eight (18%), three (7%) and six (15%) snorers. PSQI total scores were significantly lower in snorers than in bed partners (4 ± 2 vs. 6 ± 4, p = 0.002). We could not find a significant correlation between subjective and objective sleep latency and efficiency. Couples who changed their sleeping arrangement were significantly younger than those who habitually slept alone or together (p = 0.01). Subjective sleep parameters of snorers or bed partners were not related to the number of consecutive nights spent either together or apart. Conclusions: Our study confirmed the weak correlation of subjective and objective sleep parameters in pairs with snoring problems. Couples changing their sleeping arrangement were the youngest among the whole group, but their separation of sleeping arrangements did not improve subjective sleep parameters.