One in Four Adults Gasps or Stops Breathing in Their Sleep. Most Never Mention It.
Updated: 1 day ago
Snoring is the sleep problem people joke about and the one they are least likely to log, because by definition they are asleep when it happens. The CDC's national health survey asks about it anyway, along with a more serious question: how often do you snort, gasp or stop breathing while asleep? We pulled the answers for every adult in the latest pre-pandemic file.
The data
The questions are part of the sleep questionnaire in the CDC's NHANES survey for 2017 to March 2020 (P_SLQ). Each asks about the past twelve months, with four answers: never, rarely (one or two nights a week), occasionally (three or four) and frequently (five or more). We matched the file to the demographics file for age and sex and kept adults 18 and over: 8,991 answered the snoring question and 9,170 the breathing one. The figures are unweighted counts of respondents.
How common it is
Snoring is close to evenly split. In the sample, 27.9% of adults say they never snore, 25.5% rarely, 18.7% occasionally and 28.0% frequently. So more than one adult in four snores five or more nights a week.
The breathing question is the one to pay attention to. 76.1% say they never snort, gasp or stop breathing during sleep. The other 23.9% do at least sometimes: 12.4% rarely, 6.1% occasionally and 5.4% frequently. One adult in twenty reports it on five or more nights a week, which is the pattern clinicians look for when they suspect sleep apnea.
Men report both more often. 30.2% of men snore frequently against 21.9% of women, and 26.7% of men report breathing pauses against 18.9% of women.
By age
Both climb through middle age and ease off after 65:
Ages 18 to 29: 13.8% snore frequently; 16.5% report any breathing pauses, 2.3% frequently.
Ages 30 to 39: 24.3%; 20.8% any pauses, 4.4% frequently.
Ages 40 to 49: 32.3%; 26.9% any pauses, 7.8% frequently.
Ages 50 to 64: 32.6%; 26.8% any pauses, 6.0% frequently.
Ages 65 and over: 25.1%; 21.4% any pauses, 5.3% frequently.
The forties are the peak for the serious symptom: nearly 8% of people aged 40 to 49 report gasping or stopping breathing on most nights.
What it does to the day
This is the finding that makes the question worth asking. The survey also records how often people felt overly sleepy in the daytime over the past month, and whether they have ever told a doctor they have trouble sleeping. Both climb in lockstep with breathing pauses:
Never gasp or stop breathing: 22.0% are frequently sleepy in the daytime, and 22.6% have told a doctor they have trouble sleeping.
Rarely: 29.6% and 33.4%.
Occasionally: 34.8% and 41.8%.
Frequently: 49.8% and 57.0%.
Among people who report breathing pauses on most nights, half are frequently sleepy during the day and more than half have already raised sleep with a doctor. Snoring alone shows the same direction more mildly: 32.9% of frequent snorers are frequently sleepy, against 21.6% of people who never snore.
What to do with this
Two things. If you are frequently sleepy in the day despite what looks like enough hours in bed, breathing is one of the first things to rule out, and this is the one sleep problem a morning log cannot see directly. What it can see is the signature: low quality scores on nights with normal hours, a dry mouth or a headache on waking, and a partner's reports. Those belong in the morning note, in your own words.
Second, if anyone has told you that you gasp or stop breathing in the night, or you wake yourself doing it, that is worth a conversation with a doctor, not a sleep tracker. Sleep apnea is common, treatable, and tied to blood pressure and heart health, and the survey suggests a lot of people are living with the symptom without naming it. A couple of weeks of morning notes is the useful thing to bring to that appointment.
Try it by text
Text Hi to (831) 999-2553 to start Sleep Textapp. Each morning it asks how you slept; you answer with a number from 1 to 10, roughly how many hours, and anything you noticed, like "dry mouth" or "woke myself snoring". After two weeks you can ask for your patterns, and the notes are there when you need them. It gives general sleep-hygiene tips if asked and nothing medical.
Your first 20 messages are free. After that, one $9.99 a month subscription covers every Textapp. Text STOP at any time to end it.
Comments