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Sleep Apnea Damages Your Brain and Memory - AI Podcast
Published 6 months ago
Description
Story at-a-glance
- Sleep apnea, especially during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, causes oxygen drops that damage small brain vessels and raise dementia risk, often before cognitive symptoms become noticeable
- New research links REM-specific oxygen loss to white matter lesions and entorhinal cortex thinning, two key markers of early neurodegeneration in aging and Alzheimer's disease
- Standard apnea scores like apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) often miss these deeper risks because they don't measure oxygen depth or track when during sleep the damage occurs
- Long-term studies confirm that even mild, untreated apnea accelerates brain aging and disproportionately increases dementia risk in women compared to men
- Treatments like breathing machines, oral devices, and lifestyle changes reduce apnea severity and help preserve brain health by ensuring proper oxygen delivery during sleep