A Comparison Study Of Sleep Status Between Tibetan And Han Young Men At Moderate High Altitude

Objective: To compare the sleep structure,sleep quality and pulse oxygen saturation during sleep between Tibetan and Han healthy young men who have lived at moderate high altitude for a long time,in order to explore the difference of the sleep status between two nationalities and adaptive mechanism at moderate high altitude.Methods: Polysomnography(PSG)was performed in healthy young men who were junior or above junior students studying in Medical College of Qinghai University(Xining city,Qinghai province,elevation=2262m,barometric pressure=77.35 k Pa,1mm Hg=0.133 k Pa),Han group,33 cases,the average age was(22.3 ± 1.2)years,Tibetan group,34 cases,the average age was(22.2 ± 1.6)years.According to the 2007 edition of the American Sleep Medicine Association’s sleep classification rules to analyze the results of PSG.Compare the difference of sleep parameters between the two groups.Results: The micro-arousal(MA)index of Tibetan group was significantly less than that of Han group [(15.2±5.7)/h vs.(18.3±6.2)/h,P<0.05],the MA triggered by the airflow limitation of Tibetan group was also significantly less than that of Han group(P<0.05).The percentage of time spent in 95% Sp O2 in Tibetan group was significantly higher than that in Han group [5.5(1.0,14.5)% vs.1.8(0.3,5.2)%,P<0.05].Other sleep parameters did not show significant difference including total sleep time,sleep efficiency,the latency of non-rapid eye movement 1,2,3 stage and rapid eye movement(REM),sleep structure,oxygen desaturation index and apnea/ hypopnea index(all P>0.05).Conclusions: Moderate high altitude has little effect on sleep between Tibetan and Han.But there was more MA and higher pulse oxygen saturation during sleep in Tibetan group.This may indicate that Tibetan has better sleep than Han.