This poll is related to a recent research article.
I am having some problems setting up the poll, so just check the box if the answer is "Yes" - edit, you can check all boxes if applicable now. Also added question about playing other instruments. This seems to have deleted all of the previous responses - didn't know that would happen
Because there are other sleep related issues (snoring,et.) that would greatly expand the line of questioning, I want to keep this poll limited to diagnosed apnea.
Thanks for all input and questions.
Last edited by David Richoux on Mon Apr 20, 2015 12:04 pm, edited 3 times in total.
Hi:
Just anecdotally I have been playing the tuba since I was 12, and I'm now 55. I have severe sleep apnea, up to 53 occurrences of stopped breathing in an hour, and I have used the mask every night and during naps faithfully for 8 years since being diagnosed. Some comments about the study: It's a poster session so typically standards of peer review apply only slightly as opposed to a paper being published in a respected journal. At 65 people, the "N" is, as is pointed out, very small. Since they don't report a "p" value (a Pearson product-moment correlation) we don't know what the findings mean, statistically, and they certainly don't make any argument for causation. Not too much to get excited about here- as has been pointed out, there are many known predictors of apnea (genetics, obesity, age, etc.) and although I have done a great deal of reading about this, no one has ever talked about lung capacity as being either a predictive or prophylactic factor. So maybe these guys are onto something interesting. But this ain't it.
The way I read it, the only thing they say about lung capacity is "However, no difference was seen between the two groups in the lung function tests." I'm only guessing that capacity was one of the tests they administer.
They speculate that it's about "muscle tone in the upper airways." Where tuba players would rate on that is an open question - I imagine they had few if any in their sample. Tuba players operate at lower wind pressure, than say a trumpet player, am I right? so maybe don't build up these muscles as much. I assume they know what they're talking about to the extent that there is such a thing as muscle tone in the upper airways, but it sounds like the notion that playing a wind instrument builds this up, or that it would affect sleep apnea, is only speculation.
The article is pretty clear about not proving anything - a small sample, 65 players and the same number control and probably not much effort to sort out confounding factors. No one is announcing a miracle cure, it's just a proposal that the evidence suggests more resources could be put into research into this point.
I personally can't really answer the poll questions, not just because there are several non-exclusive questions and the poll allows only one answer. I don't normally sleep on my back; when for whatever reason I do, I can have breathing problems. Maybe depending on exact position, but don't know. I don't normally sleep that way, so in practice there seems to be no problem. And, if the poll's worth fixing, it should probably also ask whether we also play other wind instruments much.
Donn wrote:I personally can't really answer the poll questions, not just because there are several non-exclusive questions and the poll allows only one answer. I don't normally sleep on my back; when for whatever reason I do, I can have breathing problems. Maybe depending on exact position, but don't know. I don't normally sleep that way, so in practice there seems to be no problem. And, if the poll's worth fixing, it should probably also ask whether we also play other wind instruments much.
Maybe the OP changed it, but the poll allows multiple responses. Or it did for me.
As to the issue at hand, that lack of statistical relevance, especially with a small sample, does not prove anything positive or negative. But in my own case (anecdotal, to be sure), playing tuba surely didn't prevent sleep apnea. Maybe I don't practice enough.
