London – Socks usually worn to prevent blood clots during long-haul flights could also banish snoring, according to new research.
The flight socks are thought to reduce the amount of fluid that builds up in the lower part of the legs during the day.
Some studies have found that at night some of this fluid ‘shifts’ up to the neck area as a result of gravity when the patient is lying down. This can lead to obstructive sleep apnoea, a snoring-related condition that affects an estimated three million people in Britain.
This occurs as a result of excess fat and fluid around the neck. The muscles in the neck then collapse, which shuts off breathing for ten seconds or more; the sound of snoring occurs as air vibrates against the soft tissue that stands in its way.
Once the brain realises breathing has stopped, it sends a signal for the airway muscles to contract again. This opens the airway and the patient wakes with a jolt. This can happen about once every ten minutes or, in severe cases, every couple of minutes. Very few people remember waking up at all because they fall asleep again within seconds, yet they feel exhausted during the day.
It has other health implications as, left untreated, sleep apnoea is linked to raised blood pressure and heart attacks.
Treatment involves wearing a mask over the nose and mouth during sleep to gently pump air into the airways, keeping them open. But some people find the mask cumbersome and research suggests nearly a third of patients never use the device.
Flight socks – essentially cut-down versions of the compression stockings widely used on the NHS to treat varicose veins – could help some patients, according to the latest research from the University of Toronto in Canada.
These work by squeezing the lower leg to keep blood moving and stop the build-up offluid.
The Toronto study recruited more than 50 men with sleep apnoea. Half wore compressions socks every day for two weeks, taking them off for bed; the rest wore ordinary socks.
At night, each patient was connected to a monitor to track their snoring while electrodes on the leg and neck area assessed the shift in fluid when they were lying down.
The results, published in the journal Sleep Medicine, showed that men who’d worn socks had less fluid moving to their neck and a reduction in the number of times their sleep was disrupted, from an average of more than 30 times an hour to around 15.
Men who wore ordinary socks saw virtually no change.
Dr Simon Merritt, a consultant in respiratory and sleep medicine at the Conquest Hospital in Hastings, said: ‘This isn’t going to be a treatment in its own right, but it could become an adjunct to the conventional treatment.’
Daily Mail