Sleep Med Psychophysiol.
1998 Dec;5(2):177-184.
The influence of sleep and sleep apnea in memory function
- Affiliations
-
- 1Yonjung Brain Function and Sleep Research Center, Seoul, Korea.
- 2Department of Psychiatry, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
Abstract
OBJECTIVES
Disturbance of sleep with or without sleep apnea may impair the memory function. Sleep deficiency, sleepiness, sleep apnea and emotional problem in sleep disorders can induce an impairment of memory function.
METHODS
In this study, the polysomnographies were administered to 58 sleep apnea patients and 38 sleep disorder patients without sleep apnea. Their clinical symptoms were quantitatively evaluated. Short term and long term memory were evaluated before and after polysomno graphy with Digit symbol test and Rey-Osterrieth complex figure test. And correlations among various sleep, repiratory and clinical variables were statistically studied in order to explore which variables may influence on memory function.
RESULTS
AND CONCLUSIONS: Results are as follows. Depth of sleep cis positively correlated with memory function. As sleep apnea increase and average saturation of blood oxygen decreases, memory function is more impaired. Emotional depression, high blood pressure, obesity or alcohol impaired memory function, However, daytime sleepiness was not significantly correlated with memory function. The possible mechanisms how above factors influence on the memory function were discussed.
