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Evidence Based Sleep Apnea Information

THE DANGERS OF UNTREATED SLEEP APNEA

The Cardiovascular System

HEART

STROKE

"The obstructive sleep apnea syndrome significantly increases the risk of stroke or death from any cause, and the increase is independent of other risk factors, including hypertension."

image showing a man having a stroke

HEART

HYPERTENSION

"Sleep apnoea syndrome is profoundly associated with hypertension independent of all relevant risk factors."

image showing a man who has high blood pressure

HEART

HEART ATTACK

"If you have sleep apnea, your risk of sudden death increases almost twofold, particularly if you stopped breathing more than 20 times per hour of sleep and if you had severe falls in oxygen saturation during sleep"

image showing a man having a heart attack

KOZIE Hands You The Sleep Apnea Research on a Silver Platter

THE DANGERS OF UNTREATED SLEEP APNEA

The Neurological System

BRAIN

COGNITIVE DEFICITS

"Our findings suggest that distinct, OSA-driven processes may be sufficient for cognitive changes to occur as early as in middle age, in otherwise healthy individuals."

"In our patient cohort, we demonstrate poorer executive-functioning, visuospatial memory, and deficits in vigilance sustained attention, psychomotor and impulse control. Remarkably, we also report, for the first time, effects on social cognition in this group of male, middle-aged OSA patients."

image of a man having cognitive defects

BRAIN

WHITE MATTER CHANGES

Results in sleep apnea patients BEFORE treatment showed impairments in most cognitive areas, mood, and sleepiness, that were associated with reduction of white matter fiber integrity in multiple brain areas. 

"Over the course of 12 months of PAP treatment, an almost complete reversal of white matter abnormalities in all the affected regions was observed in patients who were compliant with treatment. Significant improvements involving memory, attention, and executive-functioning paralleled white matter changes after treatment."

image of a brain experiencing a reversal of damage caused by sleep apnea

BRAIN

DECREASED BRAIN ACTIVATION

"Patients with OSA showed decreased brain activation compared with control subjects during an attention task. The association of arousal index (but not hypoxia) with slow reaction times and brain activation suggests that alertness and reaction times show greater correlations with measures of sleep disruption than with measures of hypoxia."

image of a brain with decreased activation caused by sleep apnea

PREVALENCE OF SLEEP APNEA

In General, In Relation to Obesity, and In Relation to Ethnicity

PREVALENCE

IN GENERAL

It is now estimated that 26 percent of adults between the ages of 30 and 70 years have sleep apnea.

image showing one out of four figures is selected

PREVALENCE

IN RELATION TO OBESITY

"OSA is present in 41% of patients with a body mass index (BMI) greater than 28 and the prevalence can be as high as 78% in patients referred for bariatric surgery."

image of a bmi scale

THE IMPORTANCE OF SLEEP

What High Quality Sleep Can Do

FACILITATES PROBLEM SOLVING

COGNITIVE FUNCTION

"Sleep is essential for adequate cognitive functioning and particularly for the consolidation of newly acquired memories (Durmer and Dinges, 2005; Rasch and Born, 2013)."

"By restructuring and changing memory representations, sleep may also aid the generation of insight and creative solutions for problem solving (Sio and Ormerod, 2009; Lewis et al., 2018), although evidence for this assumption is mixed."

image showing the benefits of cpap towards problem solving

REPAIRS
THE BODY

MEMORY, METABOLISM, FATIGUE

"Sleep has been proven to improve memory recall, regulate metabolism, and reduce mental fatigue.
 
The emotional and mental handicaps associated with chronic sleep loss as well as the highly hazardous situations which can be contributed to the lack of sleep is a serious concern.
 
When one sleeps, the brain reorganizes and recharges itself, and removes toxic waste byproducts which have accumulated throughout the day. This evidence demonstrates that sleeping can clear the brain and help maintain its normal functioning."

image showing the reparative effects of cpap on the body

REGULATES EMOTIONS

STIMULI RESPONSE

“To our surprise, those who were sleep-deprived responded to low stressors in much the same way that people without any sleep deprivation tended to respond to high stressors,” said Dr. Dinges. “In other words, we tend to become much more sensitive emotionally and socially when we are sleep-deprived.
 
That is what I like to call the ‘who was at my desk or who touched my coffee cup?’ phenomenon.
 
I think we all have experienced having an extreme reaction or a very negative emotional response to a mild stressor when we have not had enough sleep.”

image of the negative effects of sleep apnea on the brain

THE EFFECTS OF SUBSTANCES ON SLEEP

DEPRESSANTS & STIMULANTS

SSRI’S

REM IMPAIRMENT

In the long term, all antidepressants which show clinical efficacy improve sleep secondary to improvement of mood and daytime activity.
 
However, in the short term, while some of them may impair sleep due to the activating effects, other may improve sleep due to the sedative properties. 

Man takes ssri pill

CAFFEINE

ADENOSINE RECEPTOR BLOCKAGE

Work in mice provided strong evidence that caffeine promotes wakefulness primarily by blocking the A2A subtype of adenosine receptors.

Research in humans typically relied on the study of caffeine, to investigate the role of adenosine on sleep homeostasis. Polysomnographic measures of sleep latency were consistently prolonged and sleep efficiency was reduced.

Man drinks caffeine at night

ALCOHOL

FREQUENT NIGHT TIME AWAKENINGS

Persons who consume alcohol in excessive amounts suffer from poor sleep quality and patients with alcohol use disorders commonly report insomnia.

A number of studies have shown that drinking momentarily increases sleepiness, but later causes frequent nighttime and early morning awakenings. Individuals with alcohol use disorders frequently consume alcohol before sleep in an effort to improve their sleep. 

Obese man drinks alcohol at night
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