Warning for snorers as study claims loud rumblings during the night can damage brain

Snoring can damage your brain, researchers say.

Scientists at King’s College London claim they are the first to prove that sleep apnea causes cognitive decline.

Studies that have uncovered the same link in the past have never been able to conclusively put two and two together.

Any decline in brain power can affect memory as well as thinking skills such as decision making, reaction time and perception.

The condition causes breathing to stop and start during the night, leading to loud snoring that can force patients to wake up frequently.

The brain-draining effects may be due to sleep apnea cutting off blood flow and limiting oxygen levels, experts suggested.

The researchers, in collaboration with colleagues from Germany and Australia, recruited 27 men, ages 35 to 70, who had recently been diagnosed with mild to severe OSA but were otherwise healthy.

Such patients are relatively rare, as most OSA patients are also obese or suffer from conditions such as diabetes, cardiovascular disease or depression.

These factors are why studies have never been able to unravel any causal evidence, as these comorbidities are themselves risk factors for declining brainpower.

The researchers also examined seven men, of similar health and education status, who did not suffer from OSA.

For the study, participants wore electroencephalographic skull caps while sleeping, which measured their brain waves.

Their blood oxygen levels, heart rate, breathing, and eye and leg movements were also monitored. The participants’ cognitive function was also tested.

The findings, published in the journal Frontiers in Sleep, show that those with severe OSA had less alertness and poorer executive functioning, including being able to achieve goals and maintain focus.

OSA patients also had poorer short-term memory.

And the milder their OSA was, the better they performed cognitively, according to the results.

The researchers said the mechanism behind their findings was unclear.

But they suggested it could be related to intermittent oxygen levels or changes in blood flow to the brain.

Lead author Dr. Ivana Rosenzweig, head of the Sleep and Brain Plasticity Center at King’s College London, said: ‘We show poorer executive functioning and visual-spatial memory and deficits in wakefulness, sustained attention and psychomotor and impulse control in men with OSA.

“These complex interplay are still poorly understood, but it is likely that they lead to widespread neuroanatomical and structural changes in the brain and associated functional cognitive and emotional deficits.”

Whether comorbidities have similar negative effects on cognition beyond those directly caused by OSA is not yet clear.

She added: ‘Our study is a proof of concept.

“However, our findings suggest that co-morbidities likely exacerbate and perpetuate cognitive deficits directly caused by OSA itself.”

The condition, which affects about one in ten people over the age of 30, is caused by the walls of the throat relaxing and constricting during sleep, interrupting normal breathing.

Those with the condition tend to experience loud snoring, gasping, sniffling or choking noises during sleep and often wake up.