Sleep Apnea

If you have difficulty sleeping through the night, and experience two or more of the following you may have sleep apnea.  

•  Snoring/gasping/choking sounds while sleeping
•  Pauses in breathing while sleeping
•  Intermittent waking and insomnia
•  Nocturia (frequent waking to use the restroom)
•  Daytime sleepiness or fatigue
•  Dry mouth, sore throat, or headache upon waking
•  Difficulty concentrating or remembering things
•  Irritability or depression
•  Sexual dysfunction

As noted with sleep in general, if you are having some cognitive, mood or memory issues and you have sleep apnea, it’s unlikey your cognitive issues will improve until the sleep apnea is successfully addressed. However, unfortunately it is not a simple issue either to accurately diagnose or resolve. Fortunately however, the Life Extension Foundation has done a great job of compiling the facts that you, your family members, and your doctor need to be aware of, which include a variety of things that you can do to reduce your risk, improve your ability to sleep and maintain healthy oxygen intake throughout the night. Click here to review this. 

If you are over the age of 75 or have significant memory issues, we would encourage you to invite another family member, health coach, doctor or friend who does not have memory problems to sort through this with you.