Sleep apnea causes people to stop breathing at intervals throughout the night. Some who have sleep apnea may stop breathing a hundred or more times a night and may stop breathing for as much as 60 seconds at a time. For adults, sleep apnea is considered when the breathing stops for ten or more seconds at a time.
When the body’s brain recognizes that breathing has stopped, the mind becomes aroused enough to start the breathing again, which disturbs the sleep cycle. The disturbances in the sleep cycle are often not enough to arouse the person to a state of complete wakefulness. Sleep apnea is often accompanied by loud snoring at night and fatigue during the day and has numerous consequences that may seem unrelated at first glance.
Seniors May Not be Aware They Have Sleep Apnea
According to the American Sleep Apnea Association’s online brochure entitled “Tired of the Sleepiness? Tired of the Snoring? It’s no joke,” sleep apnea may affect ten million Americans who are unaware that they have the condition. Males, African-Americans, Hispanics, having a family history of sleep apnea, being overweight, smoking, or using alcohol are cited by the above article as some of the risks for sleep apnea, but this condition can affect people of various sizes, ages, and ethnicities.
Although the person suffering from sleep apnea is often unaware of the problem, others in the home might notice signs of sleep apnea. Someone who observes the person sleeping may notice that he or she stops breathing for prolonged intervals or seems to choke or gasp for air while asleep. Snoring, perhaps loud enough to be heard in another room, is a common complaint associated with sleep apnea.
Sleep apnea has many consequences that may seem unrelated at first glance. The person may awaken feeling tired and sluggish and might experience headaches, particularly in the morning. They may fall asleep unintentionally during the day even though the person may have thought he or she got adequate sleep. This could potentially lead to serious injury due to a motor vehicular accident, and the fatigue might affect job performance and other daily activities.
Sleep Apnea Associated with Forgetfulness
According to a January 2008 Journal of Clinical & Experimental Neuropsychology article by Agnes Daurat et al entitled “Spatial and temporal memories are affected by sleep fragmentation in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome,” people with sleep apnea suffer from more memory deficits when compared to people who do not have sleep apnea. Those who had more disturbances of sleep with a higher number of episodes of no breathing tended to have more pronounced problems with memory.
The part of the brain most affected in the above study seemed to be the hippocampus. This part of the brain is in the temporal lobe and, according to the online article “Memory, Learning, and Emotion: The Hippocampus,” is the same part of the brain that tends to be affected first in Alzheimer’s disease and may play a role in some types of depression and other mental illness.
The hippocampus is particularly involved in creating new memories, so people with an insult to this area of the brain may have difficulty remembering the name of someone they just met, directions to an unfamiliar place, or what they ate for breakfast, for example.
Untreated sleep apnea is also associated with quite a few other health problems, such as heart disease, headache, and depression, according to the National Sleep Foundation’s online article entitled “Aging and Sleep,” reviewed by Dr. Michael V. Vitiello in December 2009. Older adults who experience insomnia may find that their sleep disturbances are caused by more than one factor, such as sleep apnea, periodic limb movement disorder, GERD, medication side effects, pain, or many other possibilities, so those who are being treated for another condition may still need treatment for sleep apnea as well.
Sleep Apnea Associated With Memory Loss
Although many seniors may think they are getting adequate sleep, they may be experiencing mild to severe sleep deprivation due to sleep apnea. Persistent and excessive daytime fatigue and sleepiness, loud snoring, forgetfulness, and periods of stopped or abnormal breathing during sleep are not normal changes of aging.
Effective treatment for sleep apnea may may be focused on several causitive factors and has the potential to improve sleep quality and may decrease or eliminate the resulting side effects. one of which is short-term memory loss or confusion resulting from affected areas of the brain that are also affected in Alzheimer's Disease.
Readers may also wish to read about how vitamin b-12 deficiency can cause memory loss.
This article is for informational purposes only and should not be considered medical advice.
Katrena Wells - Katrena Wells is a RN in NC with 17 1/2 years of experience in oncology, an educator since 1995, and has taught exercise classes since ...
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