Good night’s sleep may be perfect gift

Having trouble coming up with a Christmas gift idea for your spouse? Here’s a perfect one, bound to make her (or him) happy. And it doesn’t require fighting crowds at a store. It might even count as a gift for the rest of your family, and even for yourself.

If you’re a snorer, arrange to get a sleep study done. I did it about a year and a half ago, and I’m glad I did. My wife had encouraged me to go, as much for my own health’s sake as to enable her to sleep more soundly. If you snore, you’re probably affecting your spouse’s sleep. If you snore loud enough to wake yourself up, you clearly have a problem. That’s where I was, and I was diagnosed with obstructive sleep apnea.

Obstructive sleep apnea is a fairly common sleep disorder, especially among overweight men over 40 (I’m in all three of those categories). But others, including children, can also have it. Snoring is one of the primary symptoms, along with drowsiness. I would submit that a spouse’s drowsiness is another sign. On its Web site, the American Sleep Apnea Association writes, “People with untreated sleep apnea stop breathing repeatedly during their sleep, sometimes hundreds of times during the night and often for a minute or longer.”

It continues: “Untreated, sleep apnea can cause high blood pressure and other cardiovascular disease, memory problems, weight gain, impotency and headaches. Moreover, untreated sleep apnea may be responsible for job impairment and motor vehicle crashes.”

If that’s not enough to make snorers schedule a sleep study, what will it take?

In order to arrange a sleep study, you will probably first need to see an ear/nose/throat doctor, who will schedule the study. My insurance company required a referral from my primary-care physician to the specialist. It also covered the study and eventual treatment.

Sleep studies are, logically, scheduled overnight, but reporting times can vary. In my case, I had to be at the sleep center by 10 p.m. You need to bring your PJs and toothbrush. You are shown to a small room with a TV and a bed. It would be almost like a hotel if not for the equipment next to the bed and the video camera mounted on the wall. The technician hooks up a bunch of wires to the chest, head and legs to monitor heart rate, respiratory activity and other movements. It takes a while to fall asleep when you feel as if you’re in the space shuttle and it’s about to blast off. You also have a mask with air blowing through it placed over your face, and your sleep movements are videotaped.

The study generally ends when the technician has enough information for a diagnosis, usually in the neighborhood of 6 a.m. So if you’re saying you can’t get a study done because you have to go to work the next day, that excuse won’t fly.

Fortunately, sleep apnea is treatable. I was assigned a CPAP (Continuous Positive Airway Pressure) machine, which pushes air through the sleeper’s airway passage at a pressure set at an individually prescribed level high enough to prevent apnea. The equipment includes a mask, available in several varieties for patients who might not want to have their nose and mouth covered. I opted for one that blows air directly into my nostrils. And it has stopped my snoring.

The sound from the CPAP machine amounts to white noise, much softer than snoring. The mask can be applied in the dark, if your spouse goes to bed before you do.

Air travelers should know that airport security personnel are familiar with CPAP machines, which count as a personal item rather than a carry-on bag. They require very little, if any, extra time at passenger screening areas. If your wife (or husband) is showing this to you, please take it seriously. Talk about a gift that keeps on giving … a sleep study might just beat them all.

> Kevin Braun, a restful sleeper, lives in Stone Mountain.