Recent research published in the Annals of the American Thoracic Society (March 14, 2023; doi:10.1513/AnnalsATS.202210-885OC. Published online ahead of print) shows that a person’s chronotype—their proclivity for natural wake and sleep times at which they’re the most productive and active—can influence a patient’s reaction to and use of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) therapy.
Researchers from Yale University in New Haven, Conn., performed a secondary analysis of 469 patients from the Apnea Positive Pressure Long-term Efficacy Study (APPLES) clinical trial (44% morning people, 47% intermediate people, 8% percent evening people), assessing individuals’ chronotype using the Morningness-Eveningness Questionnaire. They modeled daily CPAP use over a six-month period through a linear mixed model that was adjusted for covariates such as age, sex, and marital status. They also performed mediation analyses using sleep duration, weekend catch-up sleep, depression, and other factors to check any association mechanisms.
Researchers found that although trial participants with a morning chronotype reported the shortest sleep duration on weekends (7.3 hours per night vs 7.6 and 7.9 hours per night for intermediate and evening chronotypes, respectively), they also used their CPAP machines for 40 minutes more each night (P = 0.001). Study authors noted that the higher CPAP use may be related to personality traits (e.g., agreeableness, conscientiousness, extraversion) of morning chronotypes, but that further studies are needed to determine the true mechanisms of the association.