Can Sleep Apnea Make You Age Faster?

In the quest to maintain youth, people engage in all sorts of activities, including exercise, meditation, dieting, advanced skincare treatments, and endless anti-aging fads. What’s the glaring missing piece? None of these are possible without one thing: high-quality sleep. Recent research indicates that disordered nighttime breathing can accelerate the aging process. Let’s talk about that research and discuss how you can tell if you should seek treatment for sleep apnea.

Disordered Breathing and Biological Age

There are essentially two ways to measure a person’s physical age. Chronological age is how old you are according to the years, months, and days that have passed since you were born. Biological age relates to how your body should be functioning compared to your chronological age.

A recent study, which had more than 600 participants, found that untreated sleep-disordered breathing can significantly increase biological age. The effect seemed to be more pronounced in women than in men, but both genders exhibited accelerated signs of aging. It is also worth noting that the worse the sleep-disordered breathing and the more often a person’s sleep was disrupted, the greater the effect on their biological age.

The lead author of the study, Dr. Xiaoyu Li, commented, “Our data highlight the potential for sleep-disordered breathing treatment to improve age-related chronic conditions and longevity.”

How Well Are you Sleeping?

While it is impossible to decrease your chronological age, you may be able to decrease your biological age by taking steps to improve the quality of your sleep. If you are experiencing any of the following signs and symptoms of disordered nighttime breathing, you should consider seeking sleep apnea testing and treatment:

• Loud, frequent snoring
• Morning headaches and sore throats
• Frequently waking up gasping for air
• Observed pauses in breathing throughout the night
• Insomnia
• Frequent daytime exhaustion
• Mood swings and irritability

Breathe Easier to Turn Back the Clock

If you’ve had a sleep study and have been diagnosed with sleep apnea, you can begin to explore your treatment options. In many cases, oral appliance therapy, which uses a custom-fit device to keep the airway open at night, is an effective and comfortable way to promote unhindered breathing at night. You may also be able to make lifestyle changes, such as cutting back on alcohol or losing weight, to help improve your sleep.

High-quality sleep can help you stay young! If you suspect that you are suffering from sleep apnea, it is important that you seek a professional diagnosis from a sleep medicine expert and explore treatment options as soon as possible.  

About the Author

Dr. Kenneth Mogell, a board-certified specialist in sleep medicine with over 10 years of experience treating sleep breathing disorders is the practice’s founder and primary practitioner. The practice has three South Florida locations: Melbourne, Vero Beach, and Boca Raton. To learn more about Florida Dental Sleep Disorders and Dr. Kenneth Mogell, contact our team at 844-294-7559.