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Sleep apnea is a respiratory disorder manifested during sleep that involves episodes in which a person misses one or more breath at a time. The disorder is usually experienced in several episodes during the night and triggers fatigue and sleepiness during the day. Snoring and restless sleep are also symptoms associated with sleep apnea. According to a new study carried out at the University of California, five or more episodes per hour may have serious consequences on the brain tissue and can lead to problems related to memory recognition.

High-resolution images made through a magnetic resonance imaging process on about forty patients revealed that parts of the brain known as the mammillary bodies, that are located in the anterior end of the archer of the fornix and are responsible for processing memories, are about 20 percent smaller than those of people that don’t have sleep apnea. Read the rest of this entry »

No sleep is really bad for your body, the effects ranging from lowered immune system (meaning vulnerability to infections) to memory and cognitive impairment and weight gain.

“Almost all psychiatric disorders show some problems with sleep. But scientists previously believed the psychiatric problems triggered the sleep issues.” said psychologist Matthew Walker of the University of California, Berkeley. His team, collaborating with a Harvard Medical School team, has now found the opposite: sleep loss can induce psychologicalimpairments.

26 healthy subjects aged 24 to 31 were investigated after either an all-nighter or a full night’s sleep. Read the rest of this entry »