During the past few years, brain fog has been a major topic in the news that often gets related to lengthy COVID recoveries. While foggy thinking could be related to this condition, it is also important to remember that sleep disruptions are a common cause of people experiencing noticeable changes in their cognitive functioning. Sleep disorders disrupt the important processes that your brain needs to recover from the strain of each day. Visiting a sleep clinic can help you identify whether or not you have a sleep disorder so that you can enjoy these benefits for regaining your mental acuity. 

Improve Nighttime Respiration

Changes in your health can lead to the development of sleep apnea, which is a condition that involves momentary lapses in your breathing as you rest. Aging, chronic lung diseases, and weight gain are just a few common changes that people experience over time that could impact how they breathe during sleep. 

Since the episodes of disrupted breathing can stop oxygen from reaching your brain, many people experience difficulty concentrating the next day.  Sleep studies measure your respiration and oxygen levels as you sleep, which can help you find out if you could benefit from using special equipment to improve your breathing.

Calm Restless Limbs

In an ideal sleep state, your brain blocks some of your body movements so that you don't just go walking off in reaction to your dreams. However, this doesn't always fully occur in certain people. Periodic limb movement disorder involves muscle contractions that can happen multiple times throughout the night. 

While restless legs syndrome will often cause people to wake up, you might not notice when it happens to smaller parts of your body. At the sleep clinic, you'll be monitored for any unusual movements. If you do have restless limbs, then you might benefit from medications and other types of treatment.

Increase the Length of Your Sleep

There is also a good chance that you might be dealing with some form of insomnia, which isn't always evident to the person involved. People often think of insomnia as going for multiple nights without proper sleep, but you could be dealing with a subtype that is less obvious. For example, you might have trouble falling asleep. If this has been occurring for a while, then you might think it is normal to spend hours scrolling on your phone before you drift off. 

Or, you could be waking up for short periods in the night without fulling realizing it. Once you go back to sleep, you forget about the incident. A sleep study can track how long and how deep you sleep so that you can have feedback on whether or not some lifestyle changes could help you get the rest you need to think clearly.

Contact a sleep medicine provider like Elkview General Hospital to learn more.