Although continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) is the first-line treatment for obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), its cardiometabolic benefits are questionable. Our aim was to explore whether the combination of a weight-loss Mediterranean diet/lifestyle intervention with OSA standard care leads to greater cardiometabolic improvements compared with standard care alone. We randomly assigned 187 adult, overweight, polysomnography-diagnosed moderate-to-severe OSA patients to a standard care group (SCG, n = 65), a Mediterranean diet group (MDG, n = 62) or a Mediterranean lifestyle group (MLG, n = 60). All three groups were prescribed with CPAP. Additionally, the SCG only received brief written healthy lifestyle advice, while intervention arms were subjected to a six-month weight-loss behavioral intervention based on the Mediterranean diet. The MLG also received guidance for improving physical activity and sleep habits. Glucose metabolism indices, blood lipids, liver enzymes and blood pressure improved only in intervention arms, and were significantly lower compared to the SCG post-intervention (all p < 0.05). The age-, sex-, baseline- and CPAP use-adjusted relative risk (95% confidence interval) of metabolic syndrome was 0.58 (0.34–0.99) for the MDG and 0.30 (0.17–0.52) for the MLG compared to the SCG. The MLG additionally presented a lower relative risk of metabolic syndrome compared to the MDG (0.52 (0.30–0.89)). After further adjustment for body-weight change, a lower relative risk of metabolic syndrome was still evident for the MLG compared to the SCG. In conclusion, although standard care alone does not improve OSA patients’ cardiometabolic profile, its combination with a weight-loss Mediterranean diet/lifestyle intervention leads to significant cardiometabolic benefits.

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Summary Growing evidence suggests that sleep could affect the immunological response after vaccination. The aim of this prospective study was to investigate possible associations between regular sleep disruption and immunity response after vaccination against coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID‐19). In total, 592 healthcare workers, with no previous history of COVID‐19, from eight major Greek hospitals were enrolled in this study. All subjects underwent two Pfizer–BioNTech messenger ribonucleic acid (mRNA) COVID‐19 vaccine BNT162b2 inoculations with an interval of 21 days between the doses. Furthermore, a questionnaire was completed 2 days after each vaccination and clinical characteristics, demographics, sleep duration, and habits were recorded. Blood samples were collected and anti‐spike immunoglobulin G antibodies were measured at 20 ± 1 days after the first dose and 21 ± 2 days after the second dose. A total of 544 subjects (30% males), with median (interquartile range [IQR]) age of 46 (38–54) years and body mass index of 24·84 (22.6–28.51) kg/m 2 were eligible for the study. The median (IQR) habitual duration of sleep was 6 (6–7) h/night. In all, 283 participants (52%) had a short daytime nap. In 214 (39.3%) participants the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index score was >5, with a higher percentage in women (74·3%, p < 0.05). Antibody levels were associated with age ( r = −0.178, p < 0.001), poor sleep quality ( r = −0.094, p < 0.05), insomnia ( r = −0.098, p < 0.05), and nap frequency per week ( r = −0.098, p < 0.05), but after adjusting for confounders, only insomnia, gender, and age were independent determinants of antibody levels. It is important to emphasise that insomnia is associated with lower antibody levels against COVID‐19 after vaccination.

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