Untreated sleep apnoea can progressively and significantly impair brain function. This is according to a medical study published in the Journal of Cerebral Blood Flow and Metabolism. This is the result of a study conducted at the University of New South Wales. Professor Caroline Rae, the head researcher of the study, did this with collaborators from the Sydney University’s Woolcock Institute.
The study was conducted on 13 men with severe untreated obstructive sleep apnea. They made use of magnetic resonance spectroscopy to view what’s going on inside the brain of a sleep apnea sufferer while sleeping. The analysis was done through a second-by-second timeframe. It suggested that even a moderate degree of oxygen desaturation while the patient is asleep has significant effects on the brain’s bioenergetic status.
“This is happening in someone with sleep apnoea acutely and continually when they are asleep. It’s a completely different biochemical mechanism from anything we’ve seen before and is similar to what you see in somebody who has had a very severe stroke or is dying,” according to Professor Rae. Lack of oxygen while asleep may be far more detrimental than when a person is awake. This is possible because the normal compensatory mechanisms don’t operate fully when a person is asleep.
Sleep apnoea affects a sufferer’s brain mainly because it is being deprived from oxygen during apnea attacks. The long pauses in breathing that lasts for 10 seconds or more happens repeatedly at night. Because of this, the sufferer cannot enjoy a good quality sleep. Fragmented and low quality sleep makes the sufferer irritable and drop energy levels during the day. It makes the sufferer drop oxygen levels thus affecting the brain and other body functions. Sleep apnoea can affect one out of four middle-aged men. Those who are overweight are particularly more prone because of the excess fatty tissues in the neck area. Sleep apnoea also affects children. Long-term effects of sleep apnoea include cardiovascular diseases, diabetes, arrhythmia, and memory loss. It increases a person’s chances of having stroke or heart attack.
When it comes to sleep apnoea’s effects on children, concerns are raised regarding long-term cognitive damage. Sleep apnoea is significantly more detrimental to a child’s growth and development. It can affect their social, physical and physiological wellness. Those children affected by sleep apnoea are generally mistaken to be lazy, slow learners, and having poor memory. Their social relations towards other children are affected due to their shifting behavior. They easily get irritated and easily get exhausted during regular daily activities. This significantly affects the child’s school performance and confidence level. Those children whose sleep apnoea has been treated showed major changes in attitude and vitality. They also start to perform better in school and their memory and comprehension significantly improves.
Considering that sleep apnoea is a very common sleep disorder affecting millions of people, ironically, a lot of people are still unaware of this condition. They still see snoring as something to be joked about instead of something to be concerned about. People’s perception of snoring should change because the reality is, it could lead to the death of a loved one. More efforts should be done to educate not only the sufferers of sleep apnoea but also the non-sufferers.