The risk of sudden death from cardiac causes is highest between the hours of 6 a.m. and noon and is lowest from midnight to 6 a.m.
However, the Mayo Clinic’s study found that in patients with obstructive sleep apnea ( OSA ), the risk of sudden death from cardiac causes was much higher from midnight to 6 a.m.

Investigators examined the death certificates of 112 Minnesota residents who had undergone polysomnography and had died suddenly from cardiac causes between July 1987 and July 2003.

The 54 percent of the 78 OSA patients died between 10 p.m. and 6 a.m., as compared with 24 percent of the 34 cardiac deaths among non-OSA patients occurred during that period.

The study has showed that patients with obstructive sleep apnea are at much higher risk of cardiac death during sleep; this contrasts strikingly with the nadir of sudden death from cardiac causes during this period in people without obstructive sleep apnea and in the general population.

Source : The New England Journal of Medicine, 2005


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