Sleeping, but not breathing
for paNOW
I was within a very few seconds of plunging off the side of the road into a ravine beside Highway 3. I was asleep. Until that moment, I was well rested. I was a bit sleepy, but not anything opening the window wouldn’t cure. I was wrong — almost dead wrong. I was asleep at the wheel.
Aren’t you glad you weren’t driving near me? I pulled back from the shoulder into the oncoming lane and then into my own lane without anything but panic I didn’t look. Other drivers saved me by getting out of the way.
In the previous weeks, I had been getting a lot more sleep than usual — from 10 p.m. until 10 or 11 a.m. Husband frequently woke me to tell me I was snoring or not breathing. Sometimes, I awoke with a start. I mentioned it to a friend and she ordered me to get to a doctor immediately. After a few tests and a week of sleeping with a mask that opened up my throat I learned that I have sleep apnea — actually quite a bad case. I stop breathing every 1 minute 50 seconds.