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Interrupted Sleep And Memory Loss

Remember the last time you forgot something? Did you forget about the last time this happened? Chances are, you were probably sleep deprived.

There are tons of studies showing that even mild sleep deprivation can have detrimental effects on memory and executive functioning. Now there’s new research from Stanford University showing that sleep fragmentation can be just as detrimental as sleep deprivation. The researchers figured out a way of fragmenting sleep in mice without causing any stress, using special lights to control genetically engineered brain neurons that control sleep and wake. By pulsing these cells with 10 second bursts of light, they could fragment sleep without significantly altering the quality and the composition of sleep, or the total sleep time.

Their conclusion was that “regardless of the total amount of sleep, a minimal unit of uninterrupted sleep is crucial for memory consolidation.”

Another research tool that’s used to measure deep sleep instability is what’s called cyclic alternating pattern (CAP) analysis. Cyclic patterns of brief brain wave arousals were found to be more common in people with upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) and fibromyalgia.

These studies support the general observation that people with people with UARS, fibromyalgia, or idiopathic hypersomnias have increased levels of subtle arousals that don’t get scored on a routine sleep studies.

 

 

Chronic Pain & Sleep Apnea: Is There A Link?

Here’s a shocking statistic put out by the National Academy of Sciences—that 116 million Americans (37%) suffer from chronic pain. That’s more than diabetes, heart disease, and cancer combined. The article in the New York Times emphasizes the importance of more recognition of this condition by doctors. However, I doubt we’re ever going to make a significant dent in treating chronic pain unless we deal with their sleep issues.

It’s easy to argue that chronic pain can negatively affect your sleep quality. However, you can also argue that poor sleep can predispose you to chronic pain, once you experience a trigger (such as an accident, trauma, weight gain, or an operation). It’s been shown that poor sleep can lower your pain thresholds: Sleep deprived people were found to pull their fingers from a hot environment much quicker than people who had normal sleep. What this means is that the less quality or quantity of sleep you have, the more likely you’ll sense pain at very low levels.

If you think about the total number of people with obstructive sleep apnea (and even UARS), it’s probably about 1/4  to 1/3 of the population. Coincidence?

One general concept that Dr. Christian Guilleminault of Stanford describes is that sleep apnea patients have diminished nervous systems, whereas upper airway resistance syndrome (UARS) patients have intact nervous systems. In fact, I would argue that people with UARS have hypersensitive nervous systems. These are also the people who are overly sensitive to weather changes, chemicals, fumes, perfumes, odors and smoke. So perhaps people who are predisposed to chronic pain also have UARS.

Is it just coincidence that most of the patients that I see who have some sort of chronic pain also can’t sleep on their backs, have had excessive dental extractions, or have a parent that snores heavily? Most people with UARS can’t (or prefer not to) sleep on their backs, since that causes the tongue to fall back from gravity. Excessive dental extractions (usually from modern orthodontics) contracts the oral cavity space, leaving less room for the tongue, especially when in deep sleep, causing more frequent obstructions and arousals. As the person with UARS moves up the continuum, they’re more likely to progress into obstructive sleep apnea (like one or both parents).

If you’re truly committed to treating chronic pain patients, you have to simultaneously treat any underlying sleep-breathing problems. Giving sleeping pills just won’t cut it.

 

Brain Damage in Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and Sleep Apnea

There are a lot of controversial theories about the origins of chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS), and even more recommendations on how it can be treated. One particular explanation is that people with CFS have some sort of brain dysfunction, which disrupts how it regulates the body’s nervous, metabolic, and hormonal systems. A recent study confirmed that white matter and grey matter volume was diminished in various parts of the brain and brainstem.

These findings are very similar to numerous studies showing that untreated obstructive sleep apnea can lead to brain volume loss or lower tissue density in various parts of the brain, including areas that control memory, executive function, and especially autonomic control. This brings up the classic chicken or the egg question: Did brain damage come first and CFS afterwards, or does CFS cause brain damage? Knowing how common sleep-breathing problems are at any age, and knowing how even mild levels of breathing difficulty during sleep can significantly affect brain functioning, perhaps brain damage from suddenly worsened sleep apnea could be a more logical reason for most (but not all) cases of CFS.

Many patients with CFS will have documented obstructive sleep apnea, but not all. However, the upper airway anatomy in most CFS patients are more like people who have upper airway resistance syndrome. Their upper airways are so narrow that their nervous system become overly sensitive to any degree of airway obstruction. As I’ve stated before, UARS patients wake up to a light stage of sleep, even with very subtle degrees of breathing obstruction. These pauses are not long enough to be called apneas. This causes a chronic low-grade physiologic state of stress, which by itself is known to be detrimental to brain health.

So it’s not surprising that most people with CFS have very small mouths and narrow jaws. Many have had excessive dental extractions for various reasons, or have various degree of jaw underdevelopment. The vast majority definitely can’t sleep on their backs.

This also explains why a simple cold or viral infection (Mono, Lyme, etc.), sudden weight gain, or physical injury that forces you to sleep on your back, can trigger the vicious cycle that leads into the classic symptoms of CFS. All these events suddenly narrow the already narrowed upper airway.

If you have CFS, what was your precipitating event?

Expert Interview: Dr. Richard Quinttus on Oral Systemic Balance

Please join me for this month’s Expert Interview as I invite Dr. Richard Quinttus to speak to us about Oral Systemic Biology (OSB) therapy. There are a number of different dental/orthodontic techniques to not only align our teeth, but also to improve our breathing passageways by widening our upper and lower jaws. After hearing about OSB, it sounded almost too good to be true.

In this teleseminar, Dr. Quinttus reveals:

- How poor breathing due to narrowed upper airway breathing can lead to or aggravate anxiety, fatigue, muscle aches, headaches, snoring, sleep apnea, forward head posture, and constant throat clearing.

- How to optimize breathing by allowing the relationship between the tongue, jaw, throat and spone to balance.

- How this device aids the tongue in moving forward

- How you can find an Oral Systemic Balance practitioner near you

- And much, much more…

Please enter your information below to receive your mp3 download information via email:

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How to Go From Fatigued To Fantastic

 

 

Is the XMRV the True Cause Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

Is the XMRV the True Cause Of Chronic Fatigue Syndrome?

From Fatigued to Fabulous! A Special Interview with Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum

Please join me on Tuesday, September 15th at 8PM Eastern when I’ll interview Dr. Jacob Teitelbaum, one of the world’s leading experts on chronic fatigue and fibromyalgia.

Dr. Teitelbaum is the author of the best-selling book, From Fatigued to Fantastic!, and has appeared on Good Morning America, CNN and Fox News Channel and is a frequent guest on Oprah & Friends with Dr. Mehmet Oz.

You Will Learn:

=> What chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia are
and why sleep is essential for treating them.

=> The pros and cons of different treatments.

=> What some of the symptoms of chronic fatigue syndrome
fibromyalgia are.

=> The role of sleep apnea in chronic fatigue syndrome and fibromyalgia

Register here to receive the call-in details. Be one of the first 200 to register and you’ll get an mp3 recording of this interview for free.

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