Authors recommend keeping the same sleep schedule throughout the week and weekend
By Lori Solomon HealthDay Reporter
MONDAY, Aug. 25, 2025 (HealthDay News) — People with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) may experience a weekend surge in sleep-disordered breathing, according to a study published online Aug. 7 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Lucía Pinilla, Ph.D., from Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia, and colleagues examined changes in OSA severity across days of the week. The analysis included sleep data from 70,052 users of an under-mattress home OSA monitor.
The researchers found that OSA severity significantly increased on weekends, with the odds of OSA (apnea-hypopnea index [AHI] ≥15 events/hour) 18 percent higher on Saturdays versus Wednesdays across latitude categories. In men, this effect was greater (odds ratio [OR], 1.21) compared with women (OR, 1.09). The effect was also greater in participants aged younger than 60 years (OR, 1.24) versus 60 years and older (OR, 1.07). Weekend catch-up sleep of ≥45 minutes and social jetlag of ≥60 minutes were associated with higher weekend odds of OSA (increase of 47 and 38 percent, respectively). Similar results were seen with severe OSA (AHI ≥30 events/hour). Compared with weekdays, on average, AHI was 6 percent higher on weekends, representing a mean 0.76 events/hour increase.
“Keeping a fixed wake-up time and using your prescribed OSA therapy, even on weekends, and going to bed when you feel sleepy will help ensure you frequently get enough restorative sleep, which can help combat the weekend spike in OSA,” coauthor Danny Eckert, Ph.D., also from Flinders University, said in a statement.
Several authors disclosed ties to relevant organizations.
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