Dangers of Sleep Apnea

Multiple studies show that individuals with untreated sleep apnea experience a decrease of nearly 20% in both white and grey matter in the brain.
These areas play an important role in an individual’s emotional regulation, memory formation, hormone release, and blood pressure regulation.
The decrease in the size of these structures cause an individual to have trouble consolidating memories and converting short term memories into long term memories. The ability to store memories and access them later is severely disrupted.
The insular cortex is also damaged causing the brain to reorganize how it operates.
The insular cortex plays a direct role in sensory processing, self-awareness, conscious desires (cravings), nervous system functionality, and emotional regulation.
The production of neurotransmitters that directly impact an individual’s experience and regulation of emotions like anger, arousal, desire, sadness, and happiness is also disrupted.
An increase in the level of stress hormones like cortisol in the blood also occurs impacting weight gain, blood pressure, and blood sugar regulation.

Sleep apnea deprives the individual of oxygen throughout the sleep cycle pushing the sympathetic nervous system into a more active state.
Blood vessels constrict and blood pressure rises.
As a result, people with sleep apnea have higher heart rates even when awake.
This is part of the reason why there is a direct link between high blood pressure and sleep apnea.
This has also been shown to contribute to the increased risk of stroke and cardiac arrest in individuals whose sleep apnea remains untreated.

Untreated sleep apnea also has a direct impact on an individual’s cardiovascular health.
One study found that 50 percent or more of cardiovascular patients have sleep apnea, compared to less than 5 percent in the overall population.
Another study determined that patients experiencing both heart failure and sleep apnea died at twice the rate of those who only experienced heart failure.
In fact, people with untreated sleep apnea are five times more likely to die of cardiovascular related causes. a decrease of nearly 20% in both white and grey matter in the brain.

Research also shows that treating sleep apnea through continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) can reverse nearly all of this damage.

Studies have found that after a year of CPAP treatment, the patients’ white matter was almost completely restored, while their gray matter saw substantial improvement after only three months.
Numerous studies show that blood pressure, hormone levels, blood sugar levels, glucose tolerance, energy levels, concentration, mental clarity, memory formation, libido, and emotional regulation can be nearly completely reversed just by ensuring your sleep disordered breathing is properly treated.

Links to the sources of this information listed below: