How Does Sleep Apnea Affect Your Brain?

Your brain is the foundation of all you are and all you do. It regulates conscious and unconscious bodily processes, stores memories, allows you to feel emotions, processes sensory information, and so much more. Truly, it is an amazing creation. Sadly, though, it is also a bit delicate. Certain health conditions, including sleep apnea, may adversely affect it. Just what impact might sleep apnea have on your brain? This blog post explains.

Sleep Apnea and Memory Problems

Sleep apnea is associated with memory problems. For example:

• One study found that those with sleep apnea were diagnosed on average 10 years earlier with mild cognitive impairment than healthy sleepers.
• Sleep apnea is associated with an increased risk of dementia.
• Poor sleep can interfere with the process of memory consolidation, which usually happens during the deeper stages of slumber.

Why Does Sleep Apnea Cause Memory Issues?

There are a number of reasons why sleep apnea may lead to memory issues:

• If you have sleep apnea, you stop breathing multiple times throughout the night. This disrupts the sleep cycle and prevents you from spending an adequate amount of time in the deeper stages of sleep.
• You may experience repeated dips in your oxygen level throughout the night, which can adversely affect your brain.
• Sleep apnea can lead to damage to various parts of the brain, including mamillary bodies (which are important for memory storage), white matter, and gray matter.
• Your brain chemistry may be affected. For example, you might have an increased level of glutamate (which is important for cognition but can cause damage at high levels) and decreased GABA (which helps to regulate chemical signals in the central nervous system).

What Should You Do?

Even though your brain is fragile, it is also very resilient. With proper treatment, it is possible that your brain will recover and regain normal function. One study found that after just 12 months of consistent treatment, white matter abnormalities in patients’ brains were almost completely gone!

There are a few different ways to treat sleep apnea, such as a CPAP machine or a custom oral appliance. Many patients favor an oral appliance because it is more comfortable and convenient than a CPAP machine. It simply repositions the oral structures in order to allow for uninterrupted breathing.

Your brain is precious! Protect the quality of your sleep so this remarkable organ can function at its best.

Meet the Practice

Throughout the last 20 years, Dr. Deborah Romack has continually expanded her understanding of sleep apnea and how to treat it. She specializes in providing custom oral appliances that promote improved breathing and improved overall health. If you are concerned about the quality of your sleep, she and our team would be happy to consult with you. Contact Weatherford Dental Sleep Medicine at 817-594-3806.