SOCKS normally worn to prevent blood clots during long-haul flights may also banish snoring.
A clinical trial involving 24 heavy snorers is under way in France to see if wearing the knee-length socks during the day and taking them off at bedtime reduces the number of night-time disturbances from sleep apnoea — the snoring-related condition thought to affect almost four million people in the UK.
It occurs when the muscles in the airway relax during sleep.
For most people this does not pose a problem, but in sleep apnoea it leads to a complete collapse which can temporarily shut off breathing. The snoring sound occurs as air vibrates against the soft tissue as it’s forced past.
Once the brain realises breathing has stopped, it sends out a signal for the airway muscles to contract again.
This opens the airway, often causing the sufferer to wake with a jolt. In mild sleep apnoea, this can happen about once every 10 minutes. If it’s severe, it means sleep can be disturbed every couple of minutes.
The cumulative effect is that the sufferer feels exhausted the next day, lacks concentration and this raises their risk of accidents.
The standard treatment involves wearing a mask over the nose and mouth during sleep, which pumps air into the body.
Called continuous positive airway pressure, this increases the air pressure in the airway and keeps it open. But some people find the mask cumbersome, and research suggests nearly a third of patients never use the device, or abandon it within 12 to 15 months.
The socks, which cost around £14 a pair, could help by reducing the amount of fluid that builds up in the lower legs during the day.
Some small studies have found that, due to gravity, some of this fluid ‘shifts’ up to the neck area when someone is lying down in bed at night and that this can lead to sleep apnoea.
This accumulation of fluid around the neck (known as ‘rostral shift’) raises the risk of sleep apnoea because the muscles around the windpipe struggle to support the extra weight.
The socks compress the lower leg to stop the build-up of fluid in the first place.
A 2015 study in Canada found that when men with severe sleep apnoea wore compression socks every day for two weeks, their night-time awakenings were halved. The fluid build-up around their necks was also significantly reduced.
Now a year-long trial, which began last September and is taking place at Pitie-Salpetriere University Hospital in Paris, is testing the use of flight socks in 24 men with severe sleep apnoea — they will wear them daily for a month, followed by a month without them. The researchers say they hope to repeat the earlier Canadian findings.
Dr Neil Stanley, an independent sleep expert, said although the flight sock therapy looks promising, the evidence so far suggests it only reduces the severity of sleep apnoea, rather than getting rid of it altogether.
"This still means the patient suffers daytime sleepiness — treatment should be about reducing it to as close to zero as possible," he said.
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