Apnea - a common problem for patients with dementia. Apnea is defined as a sleep disorder involving abnormal pauses in the breathing pattern. This causes a drop in oxygen levels and can damage critical organs such as the heart and brain. Symptoms include sleepiness during the day, complaints of a dry mouth/throat, morning headache, difficulty staying asleep at night (insomnia), loud snoring, shortness of breath that wakes you from sleep, and general pain throughout body. Putting a patient who has apnea on nighttime oxygen can make sleep apnea even worse. Apnea can also progress dementia very quickly and also cause something of a temporary "delirium" on top of the dementia that can clear if the apnea is treated. Ask your physician about testing for sleep apnea if you/loved one/patient have some or all of the above symptoms. Also some behaviors may disappear once the apnea is treated - such as aggression, withdrawal, and/or lack of appetite.
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