By Tara Griffin, DMD, FAGD, Koala Center for Sleep Disorders
When people don’t get enough sleep, it can affect judgment, mood, and the ability to learn and remember information. In fact, sleep is believed to have an important role in memory, according to Harvard Medical School Division of Sleep Medicine.
One recent study performed by the Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis has discovered an association between disrupted sleep and the build-up of markers for the development of Alzheimer’s disease. The lead author of the study, Dr. Yo-El Ju declared, “Disrupted sleep appears to be associated with the build-up of amyloid plaques, a hallmark marker of Alzheimer’s disease, in the brains of people without memory problems.”
Researchers at the University of Toronto also found that better sleep seemed to reduce the development of Alzheimer’s pathology in the brain. The study did not provide a cause and effect link between the lack of proper sleep and the increased risk of Alzheimer’s disease. However, it did show an association between the two and the need for more long-term studies. It also puts a good night’s sleep at or near the top of the list of lifestyle factors to aid in the prevention of chronic diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease.
What keeps people from getting a good night’s sleep? Sleep apnea is a common sleep disorder that is often the cause for poor quality sleep. According to the Centers for Disease Control, 50 to 70 million Americans are estimated to be suffering from a sleep disorder. Sleep apnea is when a person experiences one or more pauses in breathing or shallow breaths for 10 seconds or longer while asleep. These breathing pauses can last from a few seconds to minutes and may occur 30 times or more an hour. When normal breathing starts again, the person may emit a loud snort or choking sound. And when breathing stops or becomes shallow, a person often moves out of deep sleep and into light sleep, which decreases the quality of a person’s overall sleep, causing them to awake frequently during the night leading to daytime drowsiness and fatigue.
Major signs of sleep apnea include long and chronic snoring that may include pauses. Choking or gasping may happen after the pauses. However, not everyone who snores has sleep apnea. Another common sign of this condition is feeling sleepy during the daytime. Other signs include morning headaches, memory, or learning problems, difficulty concentrating, waking up frequently to urinate, having a dry mouth or sore throat upon awakening, or feeling irritable, depressed, or having mood swings or personality changes.
Sleep apnea often goes undiagnosed since doctors usually can’t detect the condition during routine office visits and there isn’t a blood test to diagnose the condition. The first signs often are identified by a family member or bed partner. Sleep apnea and snoring are already serious medical conditions on their own because they limit oxygen to the brain and reduce positive airflow during sleep. This in turn can cause a myriad of health problems, including conditions such as high blood pressure, heart attack, stroke, obesity, and diabetes. These latest studies add the risk of developing Alzheimer’s disease to the list of health problems associated with sleep apnea.
The most common way to treat sleep apnea is with a continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) machine, which uses forced to air to keep the airway open at night. Unfortunately, while CPAP is a very effective treatment for sleep apnea, not everyone can easily adapt to this procedure — so oftentimes, they don’t use it. However, there is a non-surgical, affordable, and comfortable oral device to help manage sleep apnea for some patients. Oral appliances are worn during sleep to prevent the soft tissues of the throat from collapsing and obstructing the airway during sleep, allowing patients to breathe more easily and limit snoring.
Even though additional research needs to be done in relation to sleep apnea and Alzheimer’s disease, it is still worthwhile to talk to your doctor about sleep apnea if you’re experiencing any of the symptoms (or if a loved one notices any of the signs while you’re asleep). Finding out about this condition can help you safeguard your overall health and minimizing the effects of sleep apnea could potentially lessen the development of Alzheimer’s pathology in the brain.
For more information, contact Dr. Tara Griffin at the Koala Center for Sleep Disorders. Dr. Griffin is a general dentist focusing on treatment of snoring, sleep apnea, TMJ Disorders, facial and neck pain with oral appliance therapy. For more information, please call 309-319-6568 or visit www.taragriffindmd.com.