Research Topic · Peer-Reviewed

Sleep Apnea Heart

The relationship between sleep apnea and the heart concerns how repetitive interruptions of breathing during sleep, particularly obstructive sleep apnea, impose acute and chronic stress on the cardiovascular system. Each obstructive event combines intermittent hypoxemia, abrupt swings in intrathoracic pressure, and …

Curated from this journal's research 📚 8 peer-reviewed articles cited Cited 38× across the literature 🔖 ISSN 2574-4518 🗓 Reviewed July 2026

Overview

The relationship between sleep apnea and the heart concerns how repetitive interruptions of breathing during sleep, particularly obstructive sleep apnea, impose acute and chronic stress on the cardiovascular system. Each obstructive event combines intermittent hypoxemia, abrupt swings in intrathoracic pressure, and recurrent arousals that activate the sympathetic nervous system. Over time these cyclical insults contribute to systemic hypertension, endothelial dysfunction, cardiac chamber remodeling, and electrical instability, and severe untreated disease has been linked to arrhythmia and sudden death. The mechanistic pathway runs through surges in catecholamines, oxidative stress, inflammation, and increased cardiac afterload during apneic episodes. Comorbidities that frequently accompany sleep apnea, including type 2 diabetes mellitus and metabolic dysfunction, share overlapping risk factors and compound cardiovascular burden, which is why apnea risk is increasingly assessed in patients with metabolic disease. Anatomical contributors such as cervical osteophytosis or craniofacial abnormality can aggravate upper-airway obstruction in susceptible individuals. Objective diagnosis through polysomnography quantifies event frequency and associated oxygen desaturation. Effective treatment of the underlying obstruction, including positive-airway-pressure therapy and devices that maintain airway patency, aims to interrupt this physiological cascade and reduce downstream cardiac risk, making recognition of the apnea-heart axis central to cardiovascular prevention.

Research published in this journal

8 peer-reviewed articles, ranked by relevance. Each links to its DOI.

How this research is being cited

The 8 articles above have been cited 38 times in the scholarly literature. Citation data via OpenAlex and Crossref, updated Jun 2026.

A sample of recent works citing this journal's research on Sleep Apnea Heart, linking to each citing work.

Editorial oversight

Curated from peer-reviewed research published in Sleep And Sleep Disorder Research (ISSN 2574-4518).

Journal editorial board
Dragos Octavian Palade · Romania Mauro Manconi · Switzerland Karim Sedky · United States

This page summarises published research for orientation; it is not medical or professional advice.