Table 4.

Short (four months, t_4M) and long-term (two years, t_24M) Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) treatment promote differential alterations in plasma melatonin levels and body temperature of OSA patients (t_0M).

Clock output	Time of the day				Friedman test p-value
		OSA patients t0M	OSA patients t4M	OSA patients t24M
Melatonin (pg/mL)	8 h	133.1 ± 14.0	91.9 ± 12.4 (*)	79.8 ± 17.0 (*)	*
	11 h	117.5 ± 9.8	91.1 ± 23.2 (*)	62.5 ± 12.0 (*)	*
	16:30 h	91.1 ± 12.7	86.9 ± 11.3	71.5 ± 16.3
	22:30 h	58.5 ± 9.4	57.6 ± 4.5	64.0 ± 14.7
Cortisol (ng/mL)	8 h	52.4 ± 5.5	46.5 ± 5.2	46.9 ± 5.8
	11 h	42.1 ± 4.8	32.6 ± 3.2	37.2 ± 3.4
	16:30 h	27.4 ± 3.7	30.4 ± 5.1	23.8 ± 2.7
	22:30 h	16.8 ± 2.9	13.8 ± 3.0	14.9 ± 3.8
Body temperature ( °C)	8 h	35.6 ± 0.1	35.9 ± 0.2	35.6 ± 0.1
	11 h	35.5 ± 0.1	35.8 ± 0.1	35.4 ± 0.2
	16:30 h	36.2 ± 0.1	36.4 ± 0.1	35.8 ± 0.1 (*) (##)	**
	22:30 h	36.2 ± 0.1	35.9 ± 0.1	35.5 ± 0.2

Data presented as mean ± SEM, at each time point of the day, from 7–10 OSA patients that completed long-term (two years) Continuous Positive Airway Pressure (CPAP) treatment (two years follow-up). Friedman tests were performed at each time point, throughout time (from t_0M to t_24M) to visualize how much variables have changed throughout treatment: * p < 0.05; ** p < 0.01. In addition, Friedman tests were followed by Dunn's multiple comparisons tests to visualize statistical differences relative to t_0M (marked as *) and between short- and long-term treatment (marked as #), in each group column: (*) p < 0.05; (##) p < 0.01.