Effect of sleeping alone on sleep quality in female bed partners of snorers

¹ AP-HP, Raymond Poincaré Teaching Hospital, Université Versailles-St Quentin en Yvelines, Physiology – Functional Testing, and Technological Innovations Centre, 92380 Garches, France and 2; and Centre Médical Veille-Sommeil, 75017, Paris, France
² AP-HP, Raymond Poincaré Teaching Hospital, Université Versailles-St Quentin en Yvelines, Physiology – Functional Testing, and Technological Innovations Centre, 92380 Garches, France and 2
³ AP-HP, Bichat-Claude Bernard Teaching Hospital, Physiology – Functional Testing (Créteil, France)
⁴ Association d'Entraide des Polios et Handicapés (ADEP assistance), 92380 Puteaux, France
⁵ Foch Teaching Hospital, Université Versailles-St Quentin en Yvelines, 92151 Suresnes, France

^* To whom correspondence should be addressed. E-mail: mbjblu{at}club-internet.fr.

	Abstract

To objectively measure the effect of sleeping alone for one night on sleep quality in female bed partners of male snorers.

Females complaining of poor sleep due to snoring by the bed partner and having no known hearing loss or snoring were included in a prospective multicenter cross-sectional study. 23 females underwent one polysomnography recording while sleeping with their bed partner and another while sleeping alone. Their sleep parameters were compared between the two nights.

We excluded 7 couples because the female partner snored more than 10% of the sleep time (n=6) or had obstructive sleep apnoea syndrome (n=1). In the remaining 16 females, sleep time, sleep efficiency, arousal index, and percentages of deep sleep (stages 3–4) and REM sleep were not significantly different between the two nights. Percentages of light sleep (NREM stage 2) and awakening index were lower when sleeping alone (P=0.023 and P=0.046 respectively).

Sleep quality was decreased and sleep fragmentation increased in females sleeping with male snorers. Some females had unrecognized snoring. However, our data do not suggest that objective sleep quality improves substantially in the female non-snoring partner when she sleeps alone for one night.