Sleep Apnea -- a new connection to Memory Loss
 

We all know that those of us who are overweight are prime candidates for Sleep Apnea and that it is already being linked to Stroke and Heart Attack, and several other debilitating conditions.

Now a new study comes along that is linking it to Memory Loss . . . http://www.everydayhealth.com/public...betes_20080613 . . . and the really nasty news in the article is that the memory loss does not tend to go away even though the sleep apnea has been rectified. :(

Thanks!

Keep Going..
 

Keep going, twirler, only try to learn as much as possible about good nutrition along the way.

I have learnt the hard way that health is an important issue with weight and diet.

Do it slow and healthy, smile, Jenny

I had to have a consult with a cardiology before I had surgery to remove (what thanfully turned out to be) a benign tumor/scar tissue from an old car accident. I had a mild murmur so I had to see a cardiologist first - the cardiologist told me that he was sure from my symptoms that I had sleep apnea. Turns out I did, the sleep study showed that I had apnea, and was stopping breathing 90 times an hour, and I never entered the deepest level
of sleep.

I don't know if I still have issues with the depth of sleep, as my last sleep study only measured the apnea, not the EEG, but the apnea is gone (after only losing about 30 lbs). Hubby says he can definitely tell, because I don't "gurgle" anymore.

I used the CPAP for about a year, and I know everyone thinks they'll never get used to it, but after only a few nights you do. In fact, when I was able to stop using it, I had a hard time sleeping because the wooosh of the machine had created white noise, and without it I heard every little sound in the house, and couldn't get to sleep.

I have fibromyalgia, and it's very common for fibromites to have disordered sleep. It's not known whether the fibro causes the sleep problems, whether the sleep problems cause the fibro or whether there's something else causing both.... My neurologist though believes that fibromyalgia is primarily a sleep disorder because the studies of humans (stopped really quickly because people got really sick) showed that sleep deprivation causes symptoms very much like fibromyalgia, and rats when deprived of deep sleep die of immune or autoimmune disease (I also am prone to infections and have an undiagnosed autoimmune disorder - autoimmune disorders are also common with fibromyalgia).

Part of fibro for many people also is cognitive "fog" (I'm sometimes embody the "blonde" jokes, despite having a masters degree) and short term memory loss. I've noticed these declines myself. The most disturbing is my loss of innate spelling ability. I used to rarely misspell words. Now I find myself spelling phonetically and even mess up word's I've never had a problem with, like I caught myself the other day writing no instead of know. It makes me feel senile. Very scary.

Wow. That explaines a lot.

For the past, oh I don't know, 6-7 years I've had so much trouble remembering names and words in general conversation. I'll have a thought and go to say it and just "forget" a key word (usually an adjective or other word that isn't used in everyday conversation but is just a given in Environmental discussions) and just draw a complete blank. I think a lot of my colleagues doubt my education and accreditations sometimes.
And to be honest, I FEEL dumb because of it. :o

But I too have severe obstructive sleep apnea, and my sleep study revealed 83 apneas an hour. My ENT was horrified!

As a lifelong mouth breather with a jacked up nose/septum, I have to use a full face mask. But unlike most people I never had a single issue with my mask. I slept like a baby in the mask part of the study--even though the pressure was a bit high--and even better when I got my machine callibrated and got to use it that first night. I think I slept something like 14-15 hours straight without moving once! Hubby said he kept coming in to check to make sure I was still alive. When I got up, I felt really good, for the first time in I can't even tell you how long. Of course, for the first couple of months, I'd have a backlash and feel terrible the next day. My ENT said it was my body adjusting to acutally getting enough oxygen, and that the episodes would decrease in both frequency and severity--and they did. (I think I need to have my machine serviced and recallibrated though--I'm starting to feel really tired and sluggish again, for no good reason, and hubby says he's hearing me snore some now.)

Now I can't even think about sleeping without my machine. My only objection to my mask is the marks it leaves on the sides of my face--sometimes they take hours to go away, and are rather noticeable. I feel forced to wear makeup to work, which is a waste on a mine site!

Hubby can't sleep either, as the machine creates white noise--without it he hears everything. The silence is deafening!

Anyway, my memory never has gotten any better even though my energy levels and fatigue have. I've been eating a lot of curry and cayenne and drinking green tea, because I heard they all help with circulation to the brain, as well as doing book after book of crosswords and thinking puzzles, playing scrabble, Boggle, quick recall, and still trying to find that darn Waldo/Wally--I'm convinced I got the book that doesn't have him in it!

But if my SA is the culprit and memory doesn't improve even after successful treatment, am I doomed to forget names and have word block forever?! :?:

That is so interesting about memory -- I believe strongly that my FIL has apnea, and I see memory issues with him but I never made the connection until now.

I was diagnosed with SA last fall and have been using the sleep machine since then. I didn't realize how much of a difference it had made in life until I traveled for 10 days without it this summer. I promise that I was fantasizing about my reunion with my CPAP by the time I got on the flight home!

Thanks for posting the link. This explains a lot. I also can't remember anyone's name, but I can remember their face (which does no good if I can't remember who they are, lol). I tell people that "simple words escape me".

I couldn't live without my c-pap either, at least not yet. Getting rid of it is my main goal. I was also waking 84 times an hour. I used to snore so loud they could hear me in any part of the house. But for now I can fall asleep in just a few short minutes unless I've got a lot on my mind. But it's the sleeping on my side with that mask in the way that drives me nuts! For the first year it didn't bother me and now it does. So does the whoosh of the machine, I have a fan running in the room to drown out that noise, it's just not a consistent one, or it wouldn't bother me as much. Seems to be mostly when I breath out.

~Dolly

Reading this thread is so helpful. I have sleep apnea and I am relieved to hear that the things I was experiencing are not uncommon - the spelling problems, memory loss, cognitive fog - I thought I was having early dementia and my doctor sent me to be evaluated by a neuro-psychologist who said it was stress. No one ever said there was a link to my sleep apnea/sleep deprivation.
I use CPAP and had a hard time at first; I would whip off the mask after a few hours, unknowingly. Eventually I adjusted and now I love it because I feel so much better. I'd love to not need it, though!