Reference:
Kwon AM, Baik I, Thomas RJ et al. The association between leukocyte telomere lengths and sleep instability based on cardiopulmonary coupling analysis. Sleep Breath 2015; 19(3): 963-8.DOI:10.1007/s11325-014-1110-x
Objectives:
To examine the objective association between sleep stability and leukocyte telomere lengths (LTL) using cardiopulmonary coupling (CPC) analysis, which is an electrocardiogram (ECG)-based technique to quantify physiologic sleep stability.
Conclusions:
The present study suggested that shorter LTL might contribute to reduced sleep stability by interacting with OSA severity due to the stress of chronic sleep fragmentation or invariant sympathetic activity by respiratory chemoreflex activation.
Practical Significance:
LTL showed a significant association with elevated narrow-band low frequency coupling (e-LFCNB, a CPC marker of periodic breathing or sleep fragmentation due to pathological respiratory chemoreflex activation) by interacting with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) severity (p value of <0.0001). Especially, sleep stability significantly reduced with shortened LTL in OSA patients (Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI) ≥15) based on increased e-LFCNB which had a negative correlation with high-frequency coupling band (HFC), a marker of stable sleep.
