Sleep disturbances affect cognition in patients with multiple sclerosisaccording to the results of a study published in the medical journal Sleep. Indeed, disturbed sleep causes in patients problems with memory, attention and mental processing and fatigue.
Researchers at the University of Michigan in the United States conducted a study with 38 adults with multiple sclerosis (MS)of sleeping troubles and cognitive problems, identified and quantified by 7 cognitive tests covering the spectrum of different abilities.
People with SEP face a high risk of sleep apneal causing the patient to stop breathing several times for periods of 10 seconds or more throughout the night. Sleep apnea can lead to a decline in mental functioning. The sleep of the participants was analyzed by polysomnography, during an overnight follow-up in the sleep laboratory.
Sleep apnea promotes impaired cognition in MS patients
The results of the study revealed that the majority (33) of the 38 patients were diagnosed with Sleep Apnea. And that it causes in patients with poorer performance on several cognitive tests, problems with attention and multiple functional aspects of memory, including the memory of words and images and the working memory involved in the resolution of problems and decision making.
“We need to replicate these results with a larger sample of patients with SEPto validate the link between sleep apnea and cognitive disorders” explain the researchers.
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