MCI and severe sleep apnea

staval

my husband just finished testing (mri,blood,cardiac,cognitive). No unusual findings, doctors are leaning towards MCI. My only thought to make sense of all this since he has no underlying health issues is his sleep apnea which we have just started to address 3 weeks ago with sleep studies and cpac.
does anyone have any information on the correlation of MCI and sleep apnea? Am I grasping at straws?

He is 70 and has memory issues but is very functional able to do normal activities. Seems this came on over the past year that it became noticeable. Especially if he is nervous.
his sleep apnea is very severe according to cardiologist and he is wearing cpac all night now and does feel better.
thank you to this forum for being here when there is so little real world advice.

M1

Welcome to the forum. It's understandable to look for a cause, but sadly many people develop dementia with no clear risk factors. So yes, in a way you are grasping at straws. But it makes sense to treat the sleep apnea, at least for now, because it might slow the progression. You won't be able to know for sure.

Iris L.

My neurologist strongly advises CPAP if there is sleep apnea. Sleep apnea decreases oxygen in the brain and can cause cognitive impairment. I would suggest adherence to the CPAP schedule for at least three months, then see how he is doing cognitively. For the record, I have a diagnosis of cognitive impairment nos and I noticed improvement in my thinking and in my functioning after I began CPAP. I have a lot of contributing factors, of which sleep apnea was only one, but any improvement helps!

Iris

staval

thank you sharing your experience and thoughts are very helpful