CNN Health_Sleep apnea linked to smaller brain volume, study finds

A part of the brain connected to memory shrank in people with severe sleep-disordered breathing — which can include heavy snoring and sleep apnea — according to a new study. People with sleep apnea stop breathing for 10 seconds or more at a time multiple times a night.

“It is more and more acknowledged that this sleep disorder, if untreated, will increase the risk of dementia. Here, we provide new original evidence focusing on the medial temporal lobe, a brain region early affected in Alzheimer’s disease,” said lead study author Géraldine Rauchs, a researcher at the National Institute of Health and Medical Research in Caen, France, in an email…

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