The Brain Changes in Sleep Apnea Study

Sleep is critical to human health, but insufficient and disrupted sleep caused by sleep apnea are common and have a major impact on brain health. However, there is still much that is not known about how sleep apnea damages the brain and what can be done to fix this. The Brain Changes in Sleep Apnea Study will look at the brain health of people with severe sleep apnea both before and after 4 months of treatment with a CPAP machine. Pre- and post-CPAP treatment, 80 participants with severe sleep apnea will undergo cognitive testing, blood and urine tests, a pulse wave velocity test, and an MRI. Also pre- and post-CPAP treatment, participants will wear a blood pressure monitor for 24 hours, wear an accelerometer watch for 8 nights to track the duration and quality of their sleep, and wear a device for 1 night of sleep to assess their breathing and blood oxygen levels. It is expected that there will be improvements in participants' brain health after 4 months of CPAP treatment.