If you have sleep apnea, or sleep disordered breathing you know that it’s a problem that needs to be taken seriously. Not only is sleep apnea one of the most detrimental sleep problems that can effect someone in the short term, recent studies show very serious long term cognitive effects as well.

A recent study in the Journal of the American Medical Association claims that aside from diabetes, high blood pressure, heart attacks and strokes, sleep apnea may be one of the causes of dementia.

This link of sleep apnea and dementia can be explained through hypoxemia, which is a drop of oxygen levels in the blood, often caused by the obstruction of breathing that is the main symptom of sleep apnea.