Regular short exposures to cold environment as an adjunct therapy for patients with sleep apnea syndrome (SAS)

Abstract

Sleep Apnea Syndrome (SAS) is a sleep related-breathing disorder with several features such as systemic inflammation, oxidative stress, cognitive impairment and a poor sleep quality. Patients with SAS have an increased risk of cardiovascular diseases. There is no real effective treatment that prevents and treats all of these illness symptoms. Cooling therapies are often used in sport medicine and in athletes after training and competitions to reduce inflammation, oxidative stress and to enhance sleep quality. In this short article, we hypothesize that the use of cooling therapies (whole body cryotherapy, cold-water immersion…) could be an efficient strategy to facilitate the treatment of SAS patients by reducing the level of systemic inflammation and oxidative stress and enhancing sleep quality.