The investigators prospectively evaluated 89 consecutive outpatients (29 female) with stable congestive heart failure. The presence of sleep disordered breathing (SDB) and Cheyne-Stokes respiration (CSR) while awake were investigated by overnight polysomnography. Males and females were similar in age, body mass index, and LVEF. Prevalence of SDB was higher in males than females. During follow up of 25±10 months, 27% of the population died. Nonsurvivors had lower LVEF (p=0.01), worse NYHA class (p=0.03) a higher proportion of CSR-awake (p<0.001) than survivors.