Sleep apnea tied to memory loss
Source: Agencies |
August 11, 2011, Thursday
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Print Edition
Print Edition
OLDER women who have sleep apnea, which leads to abnormal pauses in breathing or abnormally low breathing during sleep, may be more likely to develop memory problems and dementia, according to a US study.
It's not clear whether treating sleep apnea, which is common in older, overweight people, would help prevent memory decline, partly because clear answers have been lacking on the link between problem sleeping and memory.
But the study, which looked at nearly 300 women and was led by Kristine Yaffe of the University of California, San Francisco, found a little more than 45 percent of women who had signs of sleep apnea in initial tests had developed mild cognitive impairment or dementia five years later.
Only 31 percent of women who did not have sleep problems developed thinking and memory problems.
"Among older women, those with sleep-disordered breathing compared with those without sleep-disordered breathing had an increased risk of developing cognitive impairment," wrote Yaffe and her colleagues in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Yaffe and her team gave an overnight sleep apnea test to 298 women without dementia, who were an average of 82 years old. The test looks for changes in breathing and oxygen flow during the night, as well as for the short, frequent breaks in sleep that are signs of sleep apnea.
Just over a third of the women had the disorder.
About five years later, the same women were given thinking and memory tests, with doctors evaluating those who showed signs of memory decline.
It's not clear whether treating sleep apnea, which is common in older, overweight people, would help prevent memory decline, partly because clear answers have been lacking on the link between problem sleeping and memory.
But the study, which looked at nearly 300 women and was led by Kristine Yaffe of the University of California, San Francisco, found a little more than 45 percent of women who had signs of sleep apnea in initial tests had developed mild cognitive impairment or dementia five years later.
Only 31 percent of women who did not have sleep problems developed thinking and memory problems.
"Among older women, those with sleep-disordered breathing compared with those without sleep-disordered breathing had an increased risk of developing cognitive impairment," wrote Yaffe and her colleagues in the Journal of the American Medical Association.
Yaffe and her team gave an overnight sleep apnea test to 298 women without dementia, who were an average of 82 years old. The test looks for changes in breathing and oxygen flow during the night, as well as for the short, frequent breaks in sleep that are signs of sleep apnea.
Just over a third of the women had the disorder.
About five years later, the same women were given thinking and memory tests, with doctors evaluating those who showed signs of memory decline.
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