Sleep apnea reduces deep sleep and causes hypoxic damage in the hippocampus, impacting memory and Alzheimer's risk.

“you have sleep apnea untreated, you will get less deep sleep. So you're compromising the thing that you need to try and lower your amyloid risk to begin with, because you're going to build up that amyloid, because you're not going to get the amyloid clearance elsewhere in the body, for example, in the liver.”

“And where still the part of the brain that is attacked severely by Alzheimer's disease and atrophies, which is the hippocampus, which is why memory fades, is a part of the brain that is damaged when you stop breathing because of oxygen desaturation.”

“So, as an appeal, even if you are not apoe-4-positive, but you are snoring, or you know someone who is snoring, go and see your doctor and get a sleep apnea test. It is potentially life-saving.”

“I think, at least for the apoe-4-positive individuals, by the age of 40, the amyloid plaques start to really... So, to me, it would seem that, you know, before 40, and certainly when you hit 40, you better have your sleep optimized.”

“It's a real...I mean, it’s gasoline on an already started fire.”

“But one of the other problems with sleep apnea is that you don't get the amount of deep sleep that you need. And you have hypoxic damage. Because you stopped breathing, your oxygen saturation goes down. You get hypoxia damage particularly in a region that is most sensitive to it in the brain, which is, drumroll, the hippocampus, the very same memory structure that is attacked in Alzheimer's disease.”