Sleep Apnea Damages Your Brain and Memory - AI Podcast

Dr. Joseph Mercola - Take Control of Your Health

Briana Mercola

Health & Fitness, Health, Alternative Health

4.6 • 1.5K Ratings

🗓️ 19 July 2025

⏱️ 8 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Story at-a-glance

Sleep apnea, especially during rapid eye movement (REM) sleep, causes oxygen drops that damage small brain vessels and raise dementia risk, often before cognitive symptoms become noticeable
New research links REM-specific oxygen loss to white matter lesions and entorhinal cortex thinning, two key markers of early neurodegeneration in aging and Alzheimer’s disease
Standard apnea scores like apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) often miss these deeper risks because they don’t measure oxygen depth or track when during sleep the damage occurs
Long-term studies confirm that even mild, untreated apnea accelerates brain aging and disproportionately increases dementia risk in women compared to men
Treatments like breathing machines, oral devices, and lifestyle changes reduce apnea severity and help preserve brain health by ensuring proper oxygen delivery during sleep

Transcript

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0:00.0	If your memory feels less sharp, could hidden oxygen crashes during REM sleep be chipping away at your brain?
0:07.2	Welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom. Stay informed with quick, easy-to-listen summaries of our
0:12.7	latest articles, perfect for when you're on the go. No reading required. Subscribe for free at
0:17.5	at Mercola.com for the latest health insights. Hello, and welcome to Dr. Mercola's cellular wisdom.
0:24.4	I'm Ethan Foster, joined by Alara Sky.
0:27.6	Today you'll see how sleep apnea in REM damages brain vessels,
0:32.3	thins memory regions, and raises dementia risk, often before you notice problems.
0:43.3	Sleep apnea is repeated pauses or reduced breathing during sleep, often without your awareness. Events can last seconds to over a minute and strike dozens or hundreds a night.
0:49.3	The most common form, obstructive sleep apnea, happens when tissues in the back of your throat collapse
0:55.0	and block airflow, briefly waking you. Nearly one billion people worldwide are affected,
1:01.5	and risk climbs with age, weight gain, and certain traits. Snoring is a signal, yet many remain
1:07.5	undiagnosed because fatigue, forgetfulness, or mood shifts get blamed on stress or aging.
1:13.3	The impact goes beyond being tired.
1:15.9	Fragmented sleep from these breathing pauses erodes the deeper stages that support memory.
1:20.4	Research from the University of California, Irvine, links sleep apnea to subtle injury in brain regions needed for recall, planning, and clear thinking,
1:29.5	even in people who feel generally fine.
1:31.8	Let's dig into REM. During REM, your brain consolidates memory, processes emotion, and stabilizes mood.
1:39.5	It's a smaller share of total sleep, but critical.
1:42.8	REM follows a pattern.
1:51.2	About 90 minutes after sleep onset, you enter the first REM period, then cycle every 90 to 120 minutes.
1:52.6	Early REM is short.
1:54.0	Later bouts lengthen.
	...

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