At a plane ride, particularly during long haul journeys, it is not uncommon for adults to be offered an alcoholic drink. But researchers have discovered a surprising impact of drinking alcohol during a long plane ride, particularly if the passenger falls asleep during the trip. Indeed, according to British specialists, this could negatively impact the heart health passengers, particularly when they are asleep. Their results are published in the journal Thorax.
As a preamble to their research, the experts explain that during a flight, atmospheric pressure causes a drop in the blood oxygen saturation level of passengers. For his part, the alcohol “relaxes the walls of blood vessels, thereby increasing the heart rate during sleep.” The researchers therefore wanted to know these effects on heart health, recalling that heart and circulatory problems represent 7% of in-flight medical emergencies.
Drinking alcohol and then sleeping would put significant pressure on the heart system
To arrive at these results, the researchers based themselves on a panel of 48 people aged 18 to 40. Half of them spent the night in a sleep laboratory where pressure conditions were “normal,” that is, at sea level. The second group spent the night in a room that mimicked cabin pressure during a flight, namely 2,438 meters above sea level.
In each group, 12 people slept for 4 hours after drinking alcohol. More precisely, “they drank the equivalent of 2 cans of beer (5%) or 2 glasses of wine (175 ml, 12%) in pure vodka”, explain the researchers. 12 people slept without drinking alcohol. The researchers analyzed blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) and heart rate during sleep.
Drinking alcohol on a plane and then sleeping may increase your risk of heart disease
They noticed that participants who drank alcohol had a drop in blood oxygen concentration. Coupled with the high altitude, this impacted the quality of sleep and led to low blood oxygen levels over a longer period of time. Also, the researchers note that “the combination of alcohol consumption and sleeping in hypobaric conditions places considerable strain on the cardiac system and could lead to an exacerbation of symptoms in patients with heart or lung disease”.
Researchers recognize several limitations, such as the fact that participants slept in a supine position, “a luxury usually reserved for those traveling first class”and which is therefore not representative of the general population, as well as the small size of the study sample.
Specialists believe that “Practitioners, passengers and crew should be informed of the potential risks, and it may be beneficial to consider changing regulations to restrict access to alcoholic beverages on aircraft.”
Sources :
- Effects of moderate alcohol consumption and hypobaric hypoxia: implications for passengers’ sleep, oxygen saturation and heart rate on long-haul flights – Thorax
- Inflight alcohol + cabin pressure may threaten sleeping passengers’ heart health – Communiqué
