Sleep apnea can ruin your memory

Sleep apnea affects millions of people worldwide. There are already a number of health problems that can be linked to the condition, and now researchers believe that it may also affect memory. It is said to prevent sufferers from creating meaningful memories from their daily lives.

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Sleep apnea means that the affected person suffers from brief pauses in breathing during sleep. This in turn leads to frequent micro-awakenings and fragmented sleep. The most common form is called obstructive sleep apnea and can have consequences for health, both in the long and short term.

Daytime fatigue and impaired concentration are two obvious problems, but according to the Swedish Heart-Lung Foundation, there is also an increased risk of cardiovascular disease, stroke, and high blood pressure. Other research has found links to depression.

Impairs the ability to remember important details

Now, a recent study from January 2019 shows that memory can also be affected by obstructive sleep apnea. More specifically, the ability to create so-called “autobiographical memories.”

According to study author Melinda Jackson, it is already known that people who suffer from recurrent depression have difficulty remembering specific details from moments in their lives. This is the starting point for their research.

“Sleep apnea is a risk factor for depression. If we can better understand the neurobiological mechanisms behind it, we can improve the mental health of millions of people,” she says, according to the website Medical News Today.

In total, the researchers studied 44 adults with untreated obstructive sleep apnea and another 44 people without the common disease. Among other things, the researchers looked at the participants’ ability to remember different types of memories from childhood, early adulthood, and the present.

“Sleep apnea impairs brain function”

The group with obstructive sleep apnea had much greater difficulty remembering details and had more general memories. About 52 percent had this difficulty compared to 19 percent in the control group.

“Our study suggests that the condition impairs the brain’s ability to either encode or consolidate certain types of autobiographical memories, making it more difficult to remember details from the past,” says Jackson, explaining further that people with the disease lose relatively large amounts of gray matter, which correlates with the findings.

She hopes that in the future it will be possible to clarify whether treatment for the condition can counteract memory problems or even restore lost memories.

Common symptoms and causes of sleep apnea

The condition is usually divided into two different types, central and obstructive sleep apnea. The latter is the most common type and leads to temporary pauses in breathing during sleep. These can range from a few seconds to over a minute.

Obstructive sleep apnea can occur with or without snoring and is difficult to detect yourself because you are asleep. Take help from your partner, if possible, to detect symptoms.

According to the Swedish health guide, 1177 Vårdguiden, the following symptoms may occur as a result:

• Extreme morning fatigue
• Lump in the throat in the morning
• Daytime fatigue
• Waking up several times during the night and needing to urinate
• Feeling of not being well-rested for a long period of time

According to the Swedish medical site Netdoktor, the following are known risk factors for sleep apnea:

• Snoring
• Being overweight
• Being male
• Age (men over 40, women after menopause)
• Smoking
• Short jaw
• Enlarged tonsils, nasal polyps, deviated septum
• Alcohol and sleeping pills