- A study finds that obstructive sleep apnea can result in a loss of cognitive function.
- The research is unique in that its participants were all healthy, without comorbidities often suggested as the mechanisms behind sleep apnea’s connection to cognition.
- The study indicates that loss of cognitive function from obstructive sleep apnea can occur as early as middle age in men.
With obstructive sleep apnea (OSA), a person’s airway intermittently becomes blocked for 10 seconds or more during sleep. These breathing interruptions are linked to an eventual reduction in cognitive function, and it has been hypothesized that this is due to cardiovascular or metabolic comorbidities.
A new study of people without such comorbidities finds that sleep apnea itself can result in premature cognitive decline as early as middle age.
A unique group of men participated in the study. OSA is usually diagnosed in people who also have systemic hypertension,
That none of the study’s participants had any such comorbidities means that this investigation is the first to explore the cognitive effects of OSA in otherwise healthy and non-obese people.
The researchers found that OSA was linked to poorer executive function, visuospatial memory, vigilance (sustained attention), psychomotor function, and impulse control in its otherwise healthy participants.
The study is published in Frontiers in Sleep.
There are two types of sleep apnea. With the less-common central sleep apnea, the brain fails to consistently signal the muscles that control breathing.
OSA is more common.
With obstructive sleep apnea, dilator muscles that normally keep the soft palate at the back…
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