Wearing compression stockings to rectify chronically poor leg circulation by day also betters breathing patterns by night in people with sleep apnea, says an intriguing preliminary study reported in the American Journal of Respiratory and Critical Care Medicine.
Researchers explain that excess fluid in legs and ankles can shift to neck tissue when patients lay flat at night, narrowing the upper airway and allowing it to collapse during sleep.
In the study, 12 people with both obstructive sleep apnea and poor leg circulation (medical term: chronic venous insufficiency) wore compression stockings during waking hours for one week. On average, nighttime measurements show that episodes of interrupted breathing decreased by 36 percent (from 48.4 to 31.3 per hour of sleep), leg fluid volume by 62 percent, and neck circumference by 60 percent.
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