Warning to snorers, research says loud banging during the night can damage the brain

Snoring can damage your brain, researchers say.

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

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

Any decrease in brain performance 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.

Experts suspect that the brain-draining effects are due to sleep apnea cutting off blood flow and limiting oxygen levels.

The researchers, in collaboration with colleagues from Germany and Australia, recruited 27 men, aged 35 to 70, who had recently been diagnosed with mild to severe OSA, but who 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 failed to unravel causal evidence, as these comorbidities are themselves risk factors for intellectual decline.

The researchers also studied seven men of similar health and educational status who did not have OSA.

For the study, participants wore electroencephalographic skull caps while they slept, 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 results, published in the journal Frontiers in Sleep, show that people with severe OSA were less alert and worse at executive functioning, including the ability to achieve goals and maintain focus.

OSA patients also had poorer short-term memory.

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

The researchers said the mechanism behind their findings is unclear.

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

First author Dr. Ivana Rosenzweig, head of the Center for Sleep and Brain Plasticity at King’s College London, said: “We show poorer executive function and visuospatial memory, as well as deficits in alertness, sustained attention and psychomotor and impulse control in men with OSA .

“These complex interactions are poorly understood, but are likely to lead to far-reaching neuroanatomical and structural changes in the brain and related functional cognitive and emotional deficits.”

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

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

“However, our results suggest that comorbidities are likely to exacerbate and perpetuate cognitive deficits directly caused by OSA itself.”

The condition, which affects around one in ten people over 30, is caused by the throat walls relaxing and contracting during sleep, disrupting normal breathing.

Those with this condition tend to snore loudly, wheeze, snort or mouth sounds during sleep and often wake up.