In a bid to extend research to find if treating snoring and obstructive sleep apnea can reduce the incidence of heart attack, stroke and heart failure, calls for snoring New Zealanders to be part of the SAVE study (Sleep Apnea Cardiovascular Endpoints Study are being made.

Sleep apnea is being seen as a condition in which a person while sleeping stops breathing, which thereby triggers snoring, poor sleeping.

The study is aimed to verify if a sleep apnea treatment known as CPAP (continuous positive airway pressure) could be effective enough to address the concern.

Iterating the needs, Canterbury District Health Board Respiratory and Sleep Physician Dr. Michael Hlavac said people aged between 45-75 years, suffering from snoring and having any incidence of a heart attack or stroke, angina, bypass surgery, a coronary artery stent or a transient ischemic attack (TIA) are required for the study.

"About 10 per cent of middle-aged men and four per cent of middle-aged women in the general population have sleep apnoea, causing them to wake up at least 15 times or more an hour”, said Dr. Hlavac.

It has been claimed that volunteers would be randomly allocated to a CPAP treatment group or a group which continues to receive their normal medical care, in order to see among the two, which is the better one.