Heightened Heartbeat Evoked Potential in Obstructive Sleep Apnea Disorder During Sleep

The quality of sleep is one of the most important determinants of mental and physical health, and its deficiency or absence can have negative effects on an individual’s life. Sleep apnea is one of the most widespread sleep disorders in many societies, necessitating additional research on its numerous aspects. The aim of this study is to investigate the brain’s response to bodily interoceptions in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) disorder during non-rapid eye movement (NREM) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep stages. Heartbeat Evoked Potential (HEP) is a reliable and robust assessment of the brain’s reaction to achieve this objective. Using a cluster-based permutation test, the HEP signals of patients with moderate and severe OSA disorders during NREM and REM sleep stages were compared with those of normal control subjects. The obtained results showed that the HEP amplitude of OSA patients was significantly greater than normal subjects during different sleep stages over the central region. In addition, the difference between HEP amplitude during OSA and OSA-free intervals was not statistically significant in patients suffering from OSA disorder. These findings may suggest that OSA patients have an enhanced interoceptive process during sleep, which may be related to the cognitive sequelae of the OSA.