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• Posted August 19, 2025

Does 'Social Apnea' Disturb Your Weekend Sleep?

Folks who spend the weekend partying could be damaging their sleep through “social apnea,” a new study says.

Late nights drinking and smoking appear to cause a weekend spike in sleep apnea, researchers reported Aug. 13 in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.

The odds of sleep apnea are 18% higher on Saturdays compared to Wednesdays, results show.

This risk was even higher among adults younger than 60, who had 24% increased odds of sleep apnea on the weekends, researchers said.

“We don’t yet know exactly why, but alcohol use, lighter sleep and less consistent use of obstructive sleep apnea therapies likely play a role,” senior researcher Danny Eckert said in a news release. Eckert is director of sleep health at the Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute in Australia.

Sleep apnea is caused by a person’s airways collapsing as they sleep, stopping or severely obstructing their breath. This causes their brain to jolt them to wakefulness, at least enough for them to resume breathing.

Untreated sleep apnea can increase a person’s risk of heart disease, depression, diabetes, dementia, daytime fatigue, injuries and even death, researchers said in background notes.

For the new study, researchers analyzed data from more than 70,000 people worldwide collected between 2020 and 2023, using under-the-mattress sleep sensors.

Results showed that people were 18% more likely to have moderate to severe sleep apnea on the weekends compared to mid-week.

Part of this was due to changes in sleep schedules. Sleeping an extra 45 minutes or more on weekends increased risk of worse sleep apnea by 47%, researchers found.

The research team dubbed this weekend effect “social apnea.”

“Sleep apnea is already a major public health issue, but our findings suggest its true impact may be underestimated,” lead researcher Lucia Pinilla, a research fellow with Flinders Health and Medical Research Institute: Sleep Health, said in a news release.

“Most clinical diagnostic testing is done on a single night, typically a weeknight, missing the weekend effect we’re now calling social apnea,” Pinella said.

To combat “social apnea,” researchers recommend maintaining your sleep routine even during the weekend.

“Try to keep the same sleep schedule throughout the week and weekend, ensuring that you get the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep a night,” Eckert said. “Keeping a fixed wake-up time and using your prescribed OSA [obstructive sleep apnea] therapy, even on weekends, and going to bed when you feel sleepy will help ensure you frequently get enough restorative sleep which can help combat the weekend spike in OSA.”

More information

The National Institutes of Health has more on sleep apnea.

SOURCE: Flinders University, news release, Aug. 13, 2025