Snoring Is Not A Laughing Matter

The apocryphal story goes like this: A wife could not stand any longer her husband's snoring. Ear plugs were ineffective; sleeping in another room was indecisive; so she came up with a unique idea. She placed clothes' pegs on each of her husband's nostrils, one evening, closing them shut with the hope that this would quiet him for the night. The urban legend concludes that he did not snore at all, she got a good night's sleep, and she awoke in the morning to discover that she had effectively suffocated her spouse to death. And, yes, she did end his annoying snoring.

But snoring is no laughing matter. Often it can be a sign of an extremely serious health condition, which, if undiagnosed and untreated, can cause headaches, memory problems, depression, high blood pressure and with this heart problems, including stroke, heart attacks, and ultimately heart failure.

Every adult who snores and possesses certain symptoms, the foremost being daytime drowsiness, should be referred by his or her physician to a sleep lab, for a non-invasive test called, in medical terms, Overnight Polysomnography.

This procedure will determine with certainty whether the individual has a serious condition known as Obstructive Sleep Apnea, also known as OSA. The usual candidate for this condition will usually sleep on his or her back, have a low blood oxygen count when tested, wake in the morning unrefreshed, fall asleep easily during the daytime, be a mouth breather, and stop breathing during snoring while asleep.

In addition, the individual will probably be between the ages of 30 and 60, have a heavy or wide neck, and be obese. OSA strikes 5% of females and 15% of males. However with a population increasingly becoming obese, those percentages will probably rise.

Weight, especially around the neck, is significant, because the weight bears down upon one's air passages, causing the upper airways to collapse and oxygen can no longer reach the lungs. Consequently, the person's brain signals him or her to wake up briefly, to struggle to breathe. Once breathing is resumed, the patient falls asleep again, unknowing of what is happening and will happen again,  frequently through the evening.

The result of my Overnight Polysomnography was that I managed to stop breathing for 10 seconds or longer in my sleep 70 times an hour! I unarguably suffered from OSA. I subsequently learned from my sleep disorder specialist that treatment involves weight loss, quitting smoking, cessation of alcohol use and one of three direct treatments:

 It becomes part of one's pattern for getting ready to go to bed, to add the use of a CPAP device. But, it gets easier the more often its usage.

Consequently, I rarely snore, I awake refreshed enough to jump out of bed, I hardly ever need an afternoon nap, and I have become more knowledgeable of healthy nutrition.

But what made me go get this test? I never realized that I stopped breathing in my sleep, and neither did my wife as she had gotten use to it and must have been a deep sleeper. Only when I went out of town with colleagues to a business conference was my condition discovered. I was awaken the first night away, by my roomate as he was zipping up his leather jacket, picking up his luggage and opening the door.

I inquired what he was doing. His reponse was telling, "I haven't had a wink of sleep all night. It's now 4:00 a.m. and I am going to sleep in my car so I no longer hear your snoring!" After breakfast, he took me aside and whispered his concern--he noticed that I stopped breathing everytime I snored that night. My friend recommended that as soon as we got home I see my doctor as it may be OSA. I listened to his advice.

But how many other people nocturnally "saw logs", unaware that they may suffer from this extremely serious medical condition?