In a recent study published in Thorax , researchers explored how alcohol consumption and exposure to hypobaric hypoxia interact to affect heart rate, blood oxygen saturation (SpO 2 ), and sleep. Their results indicate that the combination of hypobaric hypoxia and alcohol can reduce the quality of sleep, lead to extended durations of hypoxemia when SpO 2 is lower than 90%, and stress the cardiovascular system, with implications for flight passengers who drink alcohol during long-haul flights. Study: Effects of moderate alcohol consumption and hypobaric hypoxia: implications for passengers’ sleep, oxygen saturation and heart rate on long-haul flights .
Image Credit: PONG HANDSOME/Shutterstock.com Previous research has highlighted that long-haul flights are becoming more common, rising from approximately one billion air travelers in 2002 to four billion 16 years later. The low cabin pressure on these flights, equivalent to an altitude of 2,438 meters, poses health risks, especially for passengers with respiratory diseases due to reduced arterial oxygen partial pressure (PaO 2 ).
This can lead to hypobaric hypoxia, characterized by significantly lower SpO 2 . Acclimatization to such conditions is not possible during a flight. Additionally, alcohol consumption, common on long-haul flights, impacts sleep patterns by reducing sleep onset latency (SOL) and rapid eye movement (REM) sleep duration and can cause cognitive and cardiovascular issues.
The combined effects of hypobaric co.
