How a simple pair of socks could banish snoring and slash risk of silent killer
IF you're plagued by a partner's incessant snoring, science might be your saviour.
While most socks are designed to keep your feet warm, experts have said one design could banish snoring as well as slashing the risk of a silent killer.
A clinical trial is currently underway in France in order to determine if compression socks - more commonly used to reduce the risk of deep vein thrombosis (DVT) - can help people living with sleep apnoea.
Despite being one of the causes of snoring, sleep apnoea is dubbed a silent killer due to the fact sufferers have an increased risk of heart issues and sudden death, experts at the BMJ state.
Many people might not know they have the condition, as one of the key symptoms is loud snoring - which is often only detected if you live with someone else.
The NHS states the condition is dangerous as it can stop you breathing in your sleep.
read more on sleep apnoea
Now, scientists in France have recruited 24 patients, and will test whether wearing compression socks during the day and taking them off at night will reduce the number of disturbances caused by sleep apnoea, the reported.
In many cases of sleep apnoea, patients are treated with a mask they have to wear at night which helps pump air into the body - stopping them from gasping for breath mid snooze.
It helps keep the airway open, but many patients find them hard to use.
The French experts believe that the compression socks could help sufferers by reducing the amount of fluid that builds up in the lower legs during the day.
Most read in Health
A previous study, published in 2011 in the , found that compression socks do help people with the condition.
This one looked at 12 patients in France who had sleep apnoea with chronic venous insufficiency.
This can happen when the veins in your legs don't allow blood to flow back up to your heart.
Normally, valves in your veins make the blood flow toward your heart, but when they don't work properly, the blood can also flow backwards, causing the blood to pool in your legs.
Participants had a 36 per cent reduction in sleep apnoea per hour when they wore the socks compared to when they didn't.
The experts said: "Compression stockings reduced daytime fluid accumulation in the legs, which in turn reduced the amount of fluid flowing into the neck at night."
Another on 22 patients in the US, found that wearing the socks at night could also help.
Patients who wore them in the day for two weeks said their symptoms of sleep apnoea decrease by 27 per cent, Dr T Douglas Bradley and colleagues report in Sleep Medicine.
Do you have sleep apnoea?
It can be hard to tell if you have sleep apnoea, according to the NHS.
For this reason, guidance states it might be useful for you to ask someone to stay with you while you sleep so they can check for some of the below symptoms.
You might have sleep apnoea if:
- breathing stopping and starting
- making gasping, snorting or choking noises
- waking up a lot
- loud snoring
During the day you may also feel very tired, find it hard to concentrate, have mood swings and have a headache when you wake up.
READ MORE SUN STORIES
If you think you have sleep apnoea book in with your GP.
The condition has previously been linked to blood clots and a loss of brain power with age, experts at Uppsala University in Sweden said.