Everyday Australians living with a newly-identified sleep health concern could have no idea they’re suffering from it.

This phenomenon may be linked to late nights, sleeping in, alcohol and smoking on weekends, leading FHMRI Sleep Health experts to dub it ‘social apnea’.

Sleeping for an extra 45 minutes or more on weekends can almost double the risk of worse OSA, and adults under 60 had a 24 per cent higher risk of OSA on weekends.

Men were also more likely to be affected.

Experts warned this ‘social apnea’ could increase the risk of serious health conditions like heart disease, depression, dementia and extreme fatigue.

It could also contribute to motor vehicle and other accidents.

But diagnosing social apnea through current sleep study methods may prove difficult.

“Most clinical diagnostic testing is done on a single night, typically a weeknight, missing the weekend effect we’re now calling social apnea,” lead author and Research Fellow Dr Lucia Pinilla said in a statement.

Flinders professor and director of FHMRI Sleep Health Danny Eckert said this highlights the need for multi-night sleep assessments.

“Relying on a single-night sleep study may miss important variations, leading to underdiagnosis or misclassification of OSA severity,” he said.

Australians can reduce their risk of ‘social apnea’ by maintaining a regular sleep routine even (or perhaps especially) on weekends.

That means going to be when you feel sleepy, getting the recommended seven to nine hours of sleep each night, and waking up at about the same time each day.

OSA already affectes about one billion people globally and, if left untreated, can lead to death.