Frequent, loud snoring increases the risk of preterm delivery: News from the sleep conference

Another interesting paper presented at the annual meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies linking obstructive sleep apnea and preterm and early preterm delivery. Women who are frequent, loud snorers during pregnancy and also before they were pregnant have a definite higher risk of preterm delivery as compared to their counterpart who sleep soundly throughout night.

The paper was presented at the 31st Annual Meeting of the Associated Professional Sleep Societies LLC (APSS), Boston. by Galit Levi Dunietz, PhD, MPH, of the University of Michigan.

It is already known that women with Sleep disordered breathing (SDB) do not fare well in pregnancy and many particularly have maternal hypertension and diabetes and possibly fetal growth restriction.

The study looked at 904 non-hypertensive, non-diabetic women, pregnant women in their third trimester, attending a prenatal clinic at a large medical center.

The women were divided into 4 groups based on their snoring pattern: non-snorers, infrequent-quiet, frequent-quiet, or frequent-loud snorers.

Only 6% of women were frequent loud-snorers and about 50% did not snore at all. 

About 25% of women in the pre-pregnancy frequent, loud- snoring category had a preterm delivery.

After adjusting for all pre-pregnancy and pregnancy confounders, those women who were frequent loud-snorers had an 81% increased risk of preterm delivery.  

The mean time to delivery in frequent loud snoring group was 37.1 weeks as compared to 38.6 weeks in controls.

Non-loud, infrequent, or pregnancy-onset snorers did not face the risk for preterm delivery.

Galit Levi Dunietz, PhD, MPH, of the University of Michigan said, “The fact that there is an association between snoring and time to delivery in a cohort which is not hypertensive is alarming, and I think that treatment for snoring earlier on in pregnancy may alleviate some of these outcomes.”

She further added that “The combination of snoring frequency and intensity may be a clinically useful marker to identify otherwise low-risk women who are likely to deliver earlier.”

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