One in two men and one in five women in Greece suffer from sleep apnea.
It is a condition in which your breathing repeatedly pauses while you sleep. When this happens, your body wakes you up to resume breathing.
The data was recently presented by Constantin Soldatos, professor of psychiatry and honorary president of the Hellenic Sleep Research Society, and Anastasia Amfilochiou, pulmonologist and director of the Sleep Study Unit at the Sismanogleio Hospital in Athens, during the American College of Greece’s seventh online lecture titled “Sleep Apnea Syndrome: A Clinical Entity Underestimated and Underdiagnosed."
In particular, a 2008 epidemiological study in Greece showed that up to 7% of men and up to 5% of women suffered from this syndrome.
In 2019, another study showed percentages reaching 50% for men and 18% and women.
People with the condition are more likely to be involved in accidents due to the drowsiness that it creates, experience cognitive impairment and concentration lapses and develop cardiovascular disease.
Treating the syndrome significantly improves people’s quality of life and can even help with other conditions such as hypertension.
*More on GCT: Greek doctor reveals how many hours sleep to get each night for a healthy heart
