Effect of sleep on hypoxic stimulation of breathing at sea level and altitude

Abstract

The effect of sleep on the level of hypoxia in four adult male, sea-level residents was studied at sea level, during 23 days at 14,250 ft. and after return to sea level. The subjects, awake and asleep, breathed graded O2-N2 mixtures, each followed by a high O2 gas. Sleep did not significantly affect the hypoxic drive of breathing as evaluated from the steady-state levels of ventilation or from the immediate respiratory depression produced by interrupting hypoxia. At the ambient altitude O₂ tension, arterial O₂ saturation indicated by ear oximeter fell 4–8% with sleep. This fall in arterial oxygenation is believed to be sufficient to help explain the increased severity of mountain sickness which is commonly associated with sleep at altitude. Submitted on June 6, 1960