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Introduction: Sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) is a prevalent condition associated with adverse cardiovascular events, including nocturnal arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death, but the underlying mechanism is unclear.

Hypothesis: Ventricular repolarization instability increases in those who develop SDB.

Methods: For the participants of the Sleep Heart Health Study (SHHS), the percentage of sleep time with oxygen saturation levels < 90% (T90) was measured. We identified participants who did not have SDB (T90 < 0.22% = median of the SHHS cohort) during the initial study but developed SDB (T90 > 10%) by the time of the 5-year follow-up. A comparator group was identified as those who matched the first group on age, sex, BMI, and race but had T90 < 0.22% during both the initial and the follow-up sleep studies. Each group consisted of 25 (8 M and 17 F) participants, none of whom had any diagnosed …