The results of a new study show that decrease in blood flow, blood pressure as well as repeated surges in sleep apnea patients’ brains may become the cause of strokes or death during sleep.

Researchers from the Yale University School of Medicine find that sleep apnea becomes the cause of dropped blood flow in the brain while in episodes. When it takes place, the blood pressure of the organ begins to rise and when this happens again and again the ability of the brain to guard itself in these conditions begin to reduce.

A previous study from the Yale researchers suggests that sleep apnea patients have three times higher risk of having a stroke or death during sleep than the people who don’t suffer from this disorder.

Currently, nearly 18m people in the US are suffering from sleep apnea that is a sleeping disorder in which breathing gets hampered or ceased because of the upper airway blockage. It becomes the cause of low blood oxygen levels and rise in blood pressure. However, when the patient briefly awakens, the order restores again.

In their study, the researchers noticed that patient with sleep apnea had considerably lower levels of blood oxygen and blood flow in the lower cerebral.  The researchers also found that patients with sleep apnea took more time to recover from blood pressure drop or restore normal blood flow in the brain.

The study has been published in the Journal Applied Physiology, Jan 09 issue.