IMPACT OF POSITIVE AIRWAY PRESSURE THERAPY ON ATTENTION OF AN INDIVIDUAL SUFFERING FROM OBSTRUCTIVE SLEEP APNEA

ABSTRACT

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a respiratory problem which occurs because of blockage in the upper airway passage in the back of our throat. In this disorder, an individual experiences several episodes of pauses in breathing during sleep. This repetitive cessation leads to disintegrated sleep and episodic hypopnea. Various studies have conducted in this area, showing association between OSA and cognitive dysfunctions. This paper reviews literature related to impact of OSA on attention of an individual and investigate effects of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment on OSA and on attention of an individual. This paper will investigate evidence of CPAP being used as a technique for showing improvement in OSA and in attention. Impairment in day-to- day functioning, poor performance in memory, and executive dysfunction tasks were also studied previously in this context by different researchers. Thus, we shall not be covering them in much detail in the present article.

Method: articles were included from various online sources like PubMed, Jstore, Google scholar and Sci-Hub.

Result: significant impact of CPAP therapy on OSA and on attention of an individual is observed through the present piece of work.

Conclusion: This paper provides evidence on the impact of OSA on attention and effective use of positive airway pressure therapy for treating sleep apnea and for showing significant improvement in the attention among people suffering from sleep apnea.

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