The study evaluated the hypothesis that clinically inapparent sleep-disordered breathing was associated with blood pressure elevation, impairment of health-related quality of life, and depression. The study used the Veterans Administration Normative Aging Study (NAS) population, which consisted of approximately 1,700 community-dwelling-men who returned for examination every three years. Respiratory function was assessed during sleep among these men and their wives using a validated method for home sleep monitoring. Blood pressure, health-related quality of life, and depression score were also assessed in the home. The potential associations of sleep-disordered breathing with hypertension, impaired health-related quality of life, and depression were evaluated, and the possibility that these relationships differed between men and women was examined.