Scientists have discovered that disrupted breathing during sleep, particularly conditions like sleep apnea, creates a measurable cascade of brain changes that predicts cognitive decline with startling accuracy.

Recent research analyzing over one million health records found that people with sleep-disordered breathing face between 1.3 and 5.11 times higher risk of developing various forms of dementia, depending on the specific condition.

The most dramatic finding: those with documented sleep breathing problems showed dementia risk ratios that peaked above five-fold for certain neurodegenerative diseases.