letters

Shocked at discovery of sleep apnea and bed partner

Re: "Tb sleep perchance to dream" (the Medical Post, Oct. 25).

I read Dr. David Rapoport's sleep apnea encounters with considerable interest.

I have been snoring for years, but since my pet cats never complained, I did nothing about it. More recently, however, in anticipation of a new romance, I felt it was time to act.

I contacted a medical school classmate, who is the director of a sleep disorders clinic, who advised me my snoring could be controlled by wearing a mouth appliance. It would be much like a two-piece sports mouth guard, which thrusts the lower jaw forward, custom made by his associate denturist. However, he advised that I undergo an overnight sleep study to rule out sleep apnea.

I was not thrilled by the thought of a night wired in a strange bed. Fortunately, my son, a biomedical engineer, designs equipment for sleep laboratories and I volunteered to test his new portable setup. Just as Dr. Rapoport describes, on the appointed evening I was wired and strapped into the required paraphernalia, but in my own bedroom.

While I slept in my usual comfortable environment, my son's equipment, including...