Why Snoring Isn’t Just Annoying

Part of the problem lies in the fact that in general conversation and/or in the movies, snoring seems funny — like ha-ha funny.

Try sleeping beside a serious snorer for a year or so. See how funny it is. Think about it. At its most extreme, a lack of sleep is a form of torture. In mild cases, a lack of sleep doesn’t bring out the best in us. Thankfully, my days of sleeping with a snorer are over.

When I hear friends talking about sleeping on the sofa or in another room because of a snoring partner, I think of the years I spent growing angrier by the sleepless night because my husband sounded like a bulldozer three feet away from me. If you’re reading this and nodding your head because you know what I’m talking about, I feel your pain. If you’re being forced to read this, you probably don’t want to deal with the problem. For your sake and the sake of the rest of your family, please get past whatever it is that is holding you back from breathing better in your sleep.

Life, in general, has the real possibility of greatly improving – and I’m not overstating the effects regular good sleep can have for you. While it took a near-death experience to put an end to my husband’s snoring, the stay in the hospital and subsequent stay in the sleep clinic did wonders for our marriage.

Though he had not been officially diagnosed with sleep apnea, there was no question in anyone’s mind who was within a 50-foot radius while he was sleeping that he had it. A stay in a sleep clinic is required to get a person properly fitted for a breathing machine and the headgear that goes with it. He would not, under any circumstances, agree to go to and/or spend a night in a sleep clinic. He wasn’t budging. He wouldn’t even believe he snored. Even after video/audio evidence. As I mentioned earlier, a lack of sleep doesn’t bring out the best in us.

Finally (to get me to stop talking about it), he agreed that if I could get him a C Pap breathing machine to wear at night to alleviate the snoring and apnea, he would wear it. He knew these machines require a prescription – and he underestimated my dedication to the task. When eBay first started, its item list was wide open. I bought him a used breathing machine online. I ordered a new mask and tubing from a medical supplier. He had promised to wear it and did so begrudgingly on occasion. My wunderfind helped some. Because it wasn’t fitted right, he hated the whole apparatus and seldom kept his promise.

The snoring continued.

Seven years ago, a blood clot formed in his leg, due to a minor knee fracture. Unbeknownst to us, the clot broke lose and ended up straddling his lungs. Things weren’t looking good.

Even while he was hooked up to all sorts of breathing machines in the hospital, I asked the doctor if he thought our eBay-purchased breathing machine would help.

To my surprise, the doctor said, “Yes.”

So in the middle of a night I wasn’t sure my husband was going to live through, I drove home and got the old gray machine. Back in the hospital, the respiratory therapist hooked it up amongst the rest of the tubes encouraging my husband’s life. Against many odds, my husband ultimately made it. There were many factors in his recovery including a great team of doctors and lots of prayer from family and friends. Even so, I’m convinced the breathing machine – helping to push air through my husband’s respiratory system – made a positive difference.

After 29 days in the regular hospital, he was released with strict instructions and a bonafide prescription to a sleep clinic for a proper apnea diagnosis. I have no idea which one – and, if you’re curious, I know not a soul in or am related to any of the area’s sleep clinics. All I can say is the machine and breathing mask he got after a night in the sleep clinic work remarkably well. He willfully wears it every night – even when we go on trips. Good sleep has done wonders for our lives in general.