Article
The Snoring Index
Der Schnarchindex als Maß des Schnarchens
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Published: | September 7, 2006 |
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The evaluation of efficiency of the wide range of conservative and operative methods in the therapy of snoring can be done with a standardized questionnaire, judging the subjective improvement as rated by the bed partner. As an objective measurement, the snoring index, i.e. the number of snores per hour, is used. The aim of this study was to evaluate the stability of the snoring index from pre- to postoperative night.
We studied 107 patients, presenting at our hospital for therapy of their snoring, with 2 nights polysomnography. Quality of sleep was expressed by sleep efficiency (total sleep time/ time in bed). The intenseness of snoring was quantified by the snoring index.
The mean sleep efficiency in the first night was 86.7 % (+/- 9.6 %), in the second night 88.1 % (+/- 8.8 %). The mean snoring index in the first night was 239 (+/- 195), in the second night 302 (+/- 223). The mean difference of the snoring indices between the first and second night was 128, i.e. 54%.
We relate the small change in sleep efficiency mostly to the first-night-effect. In comparison, the differences in the snoring indices (54%) were disproportionately high. We conclude that the snoring index has a high variability from night to night, independent of sleep quality. We propose, that the evaluation of the efficiency of a snoring therapy should not rely on the results of single examination nights.