SynthesisSleep medicine reviews2020
Obstructive sleep apnea, cognition and Alzheimer's disease: A systematic review integrating three decades of multidisciplinary research.
Synthesis in Sleep medicine reviews, 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. It is linked to 2 registered trials, which are not on this map. Cited by 195 papers, 8 of them syntheses that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
The Impact of 2 Weeks CPAP Withdrawal on Brain Waste Clearance in Adults With Severe Obstructive Sleep Apnoea - A Randomised Controlled Crossover Trial
Cognitive Function and Pathophysiological Mechanisms in Adults With Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Long-term Impact of Positive Airway Pressure Therapy
Who cites it
195 citing papers in PubMed, 8 syntheses or guidelines pooled it, 362 citations in OpenAlex.
- Sleep and cognition in Hispanic/Latin American adults: A systematic review.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Pooled it
- Prevalence of cognitive impairment among adults with obstructive sleep apnea: a systematic review and meta-analysis.Sleep & breathing = Schlaf & Atmung · 2025Pooled it
- The relationship between obstructive sleep apnea and circulating tau levels: A meta-analysis.Brain and behavior · 2023Pooled it
- Sleep Problems Associate With Multimorbidity: A Systematic Review and Meta-analysis.Public health reviews · 2023Pooled it
- Polysomnographic Predictors of Sleep, Motor, and Cognitive Dysfunction Progression in Parkinson's Disease.Current neurology and neuroscience reports · 2022Pooled it
- Sleep in Alzheimer's disease: a systematic review and meta-analysis of polysomnographic findings.Translational psychiatry · 2022Pooled it
- Cognition effectiveness of continuous positive airway pressure treatment in obstructive sleep apnea syndrome patients with cognitive impairment: a meta-analysis.Experimental brain research · 2021Pooled it
- Association Between Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Its Treatment, and Alzheimer's Disease: Systematic Mini-Review.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2020Pooled it
- Trial
- Paroxysmal slow wave events are associated with cognitive impairment in patients with obstructive sleep apnea.Alzheimer's research & therapy · 2022Trial
- Investigation of the Effectiveness of Traditional Breathing Therapy on Pulmonary Function in College Students with Obstructive Sleep Apnea.Contrast media & molecular imaging · 2022Trial
- Molecular Drivers of Cognitive Decline and Neuroprotection in Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Narrative Review.Antioxidants (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Imaging study of white matter microstructural damage and glymphatic system dysfunction in patients with primary insomnia: a combined analysis based on PSMD, DTI-ALPS, and EPVS.Quantitative imaging in medicine and surgery · 2026Article
- Sleep complaints and genetic risk of Alzheimer's disease in older women: associations with memory and tau deposition.The journal of prevention of Alzheimer's disease · 2026Article
- Night-To-Night Variability in Sleep Apnea Is Associated With Persistence and Burden of Device-Detected Atrial Fibrillation.Journal of sleep research · 2026Article
- Sleep apnea in REM sleep as an amplifier of vascular contributions to Alzheimer's disease.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Review
- Impact of Obstructive Sleep Apnea on Blood-Brain Barrier Permeability and Membrane Proteins.International journal of molecular sciences · 2026Review
- Associations of self-reported obstructive sleep apnea with cognition and dementia risk in cognitively unimpaired middle-aged adults.Alzheimer's & dementia : the journal of the Alzheimer's Association · 2026Article
- Impact of Sleep Quality on Gait Variability: Pilot Cohort Study.JMIR aging · 2026Article
- A Global Burden Perspective on Obstructive Sleep Apnea, Hearing Loss, and Early-Onset Cognitive Decline.Neurology international · 2026Review
135 more citing papers are in PubMed but not listed here.
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
12 authors at 8 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
Increasing evidence links cognitive-decline and Alzheimer's disease (AD) to various sleep disorders, including obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). With increasing age, there are substantial differences in OSA's prevalence, associated comorbidities and phenotypic presentation. An important question for sleep and AD researchers is whether OSA's heterogeneity results in varying cognitive-outcomes in older-adults compared to middle-aged adults. In this review, we systematically integrated research examining OSA and cognition, mild cognitive-impairment (MCI) and AD/AD biomarkers; including the effects of continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP) treatment, particularly focusing on characterizing the heterogeneity of OSA and its cognitive-outcomes. Broadly, in middle-aged adults, OSA is often associated with mild impairment in attention, memory and executive function. In older-adults, OSA is not associated with any particular pattern of cognitive-impairment at cross-section; however, OSA is associated with the development of MCI or AD with symptomatic patients who have a higher likelihood of associated disturbed sleep/cognitive-impairment driving these findings. CPAP treatment may be effective in improving cognition in OSA patients with AD. Recent trends demonstrate links between OSA and AD-biomarkers of neurodegeneration across all age-groups. These distinct patterns provide the foundation for envisioning better characterization of OSA and the need for more sensitive/novel sleep-dependent cognitive assessments to assess OSA-related cognitive-impairment.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.