The coffee pot had just finished when Frank set his brown bag on my kitchen table last Tuesday. It was the usual mix from the senior centre on Elm Street—blood pressure pills, a statin, and a bottle of sleep aids he bought over the counter. He told me he’d been forgetting names again, and his daughter was worried. I looked at the sleep aids first, because that’s the easiest thing to check. But then he mentioned his wife had moved to the guest room because of his snoring, and he woke up every morning with a headache. That changed the direction of the conversation.
How to keep your memory steadyThe video explains what to do about memory slips after sixty.
I have written before about how sleep affects memory, but Frank’s situation was specific. When you stop breathing repeatedly at night, even for ten seconds at a time, your brain doesn’t get the deep sleep it needs to file away the day. The medical term for the stoppage is apnea—a reduction in airflow of ninety percent or more lasting at least ten seconds. The shallow breathing is called hypopnea, a thirty percent reduction lasting ten seconds with a drop in oxygen or an arousal. Add up all those events, divide by the hours you slept, and you get the Apnea-Hypopnea Index. Less than five is normal. Five to fifteen with daytime sleepiness, or fifteen or more regardless, and you have the diagnosis. It is common for this condition to go unnoticed.
Frank asked what the machine would cost. I told him I didn’t know exactly—prices vary by insurance and supplier—but I knew the test itself. He went to Dr. Okafor, who ordered a home sleep apnea test. The results came back on March 12th: an AHI of twenty-two events per hour. His oxygen saturation dropped to eighty-eight percent during the night. He started treatment on April 3rd. By the second week of May, six weeks later, his morning headaches were gone. He could remember his neighbor’s name at the mailbox. The machine itself, before insurance, ran about eight hundred; the mask and hose replacement every three months cost him forty-five out of pocket. I don’t give prices for gear, but Frank wanted me to share his because he wished someone had told him sooner.
There are two ways to get tested. Frank did the home test, which he wore in his own bed for three nights. It measured his airflow, oxygen, and effort to breathe. The other option is the in-laboratory polysomnography—the gold standard. I have known people who preferred the lab because a technician monitors you all night, and others who chose home because they sleep better in their own bed without wires on their scalp. I have used neither myself, but I have sat with both kinds of reports at the kitchen table, and both give the AHI number that matters.
Go watch the video and see what is usually behind memory slips after sixty.
I ran into Frank at the grocery store pharmacy counter last week. He looked lighter. “I’m not napping every afternoon,” he said. “And Ruth moved back in.” I asked about the machine noise. “Quieter than my snoring,” he said. “She doesn’t mind it.” That was the whole exchange, but it told me the treatment was working.
Untreated apnea does more than make you tired. I don’t say this to frighten anyone. I say it because when memory slips, we check the medicine cabinet first, then we look at sleep. If you wake with headaches, if someone says you stop breathing at night, or if you are tired despite eight hours in bed, ask your doctor about a sleep study. Morning headaches are one sign I watch for. Snoring and witnessed pauses are another.
Watch the video explainer on memory slips now before you assume the forgetting is final.
Tonight, when you take your evening pills, notice if you feel unusually sleepy or if you have been told you snore. If either is true, write it on the calendar by the phone. That is the first step.