Cognition and Obstructive Sleep Apnea
Monday, October 5th, 2009Sleep apnea cognition and brain function
I recently attended a seminar on the impact of sleep apnea on cognition and brain function. Hard to believe, but it was rather fascinating and shed light on how important it is to treat sleep apnea at an early stage.
Generally when looking at an overnight sleep study to areas are evaluated; one being the sleep fragmentation (the number of times you awaken) and the other being recurrent hypoxia (the desaturation of oxygen in the blood.) These two factors lead to excessive daytime sleepiness, depression, attention and concentration problems, cardiovascular and an entire host of medical complications.
During this seminar the focus was trying to identify specific cognitive domains that improve with treatment and which ones did not improve. In general, treatment of sleep apnea improved attention and fatigue in most studies and consistently did not improve psychomotor functioning. So, fatigue is improved, however complex thinking and problem solving did not improve. The theory is that sleep deprivation can directly impact cognitive and brain function permanently.
As with all things, there are varying degrees of severity. Bottom line, it is not just about feeling tired, it is about treating the disease before long term, irreversible damage is done. Once again, obstructive sleep apnea is a serious player and should be evaluated and dealt with as soon as possible.
