Apnea

TONY LUKE Jr. isn't nearly the man he used be. And that's one of two reasons the 50-year-old cheesesteak-and-roast-pork entrepreneur may be the happiest he's ever been (more on the second reason later). A year ago, when I profiled the modern-day Renaissance man for the Daily News , Luke didn't so much tip the scales; he crushed them, weighing almost 350 pounds. But just about a year later, here is Luke (real name, Anthony Lucidonio Jr.) sitting at a back table in his favorite Italian eatery, the deep-in-the-heart-of-South Philly Franco & Luigi's, carrying a mere 243 pounds on an impressively toned, 5-foot-9-inch frame.

Jeanne Alper, mother of 2-month-old, dressed-in-pink Elizabeth Ann, doesn't mind when babies cry. "You know they're breathing when their screaming," said the Audubon mother with a rueful smile. While her comment might seem strange to outsiders, the group gathered recently at West Jersey Hospital-Voorhees knew exactly what she meant. They are parents of infants afflicted with apnea, a temporary cessation of breathing that can result in crib death. At West Jersey, parents meet twice a month to discuss their experiences and hear speakers.

Loud snoring and insomnia used to be merely annoying. Now they are big business. In Philadelphia and across the country, sleep-diagnostic centers are popping up and people once aggravated by a lousy night's sleep are getting help. One beneficiary of the push for more testing is a local company, Viasys Healthcare Inc., which makes medical equipment including devices to diagnose and treat sleep ailments like sleep apnea, a condition in which breathing stops repeatedly for brief periods during sleep.

If your child's at the bottom of the class, the reason may be in his throat. A new study published in the journal Pediatrics found that removing a child's tonsils and adenoids can lead to better grades, presumably because the surgery allows for a better night's sleep. Enlarged tonsils and adenoids can lead to a condition called sleep apnea, in which breathing stops for short periods during sleep. Children in the study, who had been in the bottom 10 percent of their class and also had been diagnosed with sleep apnea, raised their grades from C-plus to B-minus in the year after their surgery, said David Gozal, a professor of pediatrics at Tulane University School of Medicine who conducted the research.

A judge who kept falling asleep on the bench . . . a Catholic priest who constantly dozed off and began snoring while hearing confessions . . . a casino pit boss who was about to be fired because he would fall asleep while counting hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of chips. Not to mention a financial analyst who was about to lose his job because he would nod off over his computer, and a government official who was about to be canned because he couldn't stay awake at important meetings.

By Kelly Prill My mother had one of those old hair dryers that came in a hard plastic case with golden buckles. On the days Mom set her hair, she'd call for one of us to get the case and open it. She'd remove the cap, fit it over her curlers, and draw it tightly around her head. Coiled around the motor was a clear, flexible hose that Mom would plug into the cap. Then she would sit and wait for the blast of hot air to dry her hair. My sisters and I would gather round, our curiosity piqued by this beauty regimen, holding our unpolished fingernails above an air outlet on top of the motor labeled "Nail dryer.

For Charles Capella, a long-distance truck driver, sleeping on the job could be a dangerous practice. The Bristol resident, 43, learned to cope with his chronic drowsiness by pulling off to the side of the road for a nap. At home, he often dozed while watching television. Yet when he went to bed, he was restless. And when he slept, his snoring was so raucous that his wife had to move to another bedroom. "I was getting disgusted with him," Sandy Capella, his wife of 15 years, recalled recently.

Carrying a toothbrush and change of clothes, Charles Woodard of Stratford was ready for one of the most important evenings of his life. Before his wife read a magazine article on sleep laboratories, he never expected that there would be a medical explanation for his problem. According to Woodard, his family has complained for the last five years that his snoring is so loud that it keeps them awake at night and that during the day, he simply cannot keep his eyes open. "I've stopped driving because I fall asleep at the wheel," he told Eva Morozsan, respiratory care director at Kennedy Memorial Hospitals/Stratford Division, which opened in 1981 as the first sleep laboratory in South Jersey.

SAN FRANCISCO Report links snoring to auto accidents Men who habitually snore or have a hidden sleep disorder known as apnea get into three times as many auto accidents as the rest of the population, according to a major study released yesterday. And men and women with undiagnosed sleep apnea are seven times more likely to have multiple accidents, according to researchers at the University of Wisconsin. Alarmingly, the risk exists whether or not the person feels drowsy, said Terry Young, author of the study and a professor at the university's school of preventive medicine.

Cephalon Inc. said yesterday that it received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration to sell its narcolepsy drug, Provigil, to treat a broader range of sleep disorders, including sleepiness suffered by night-shift workers. Provigil is now approved only for those who suffer from narcolepsy, a disorder in which people suddenly fall asleep during waking hours. In September, an FDA advisory panel recommended to the FDA that use of Provigil be expanded to treat fatigued shift workers whose shifts make it hard to stay awake on the job, and to treat obstructive sleep apnea, a condition in which nighttime sleep is interrupted by irregular breathing.

Why are 70 million Americans having trouble getting a good night's sleep? Let us count the ways: We are over-caffeinated (coffee, soft drinks, energy drinks, snacks) and over-medicated (prescription and over-the-counter drugs, including alcohol), wreaking havoc with slumber patterns. We are over-wired (video games, Web browsing, social media, texting) and overstressed (money, work, relationships, overloaded schedules), making us too restless to doze off when we should. We are overworked (longer hours, night shifts incompatible with our biological clocks)

TONY LUKE Jr. isn't nearly the man he used be. And that's one of two reasons the 50-year-old cheesesteak-and-roast-pork entrepreneur may be the happiest he's ever been (more on the second reason later). A year ago, when I profiled the modern-day Renaissance man for the Daily News , Luke didn't so much tip the scales; he crushed them, weighing almost 350 pounds. But just about a year later, here is Luke (real name, Anthony Lucidonio Jr.) sitting at a back table in his favorite Italian eatery, the deep-in-the-heart-of-South Philly Franco & Luigi's, carrying a mere 243 pounds on an impressively toned, 5-foot-9-inch frame.

Neighbors are living off the grid on Windsor Park Lane in Havertown, powerless since Hurricane Irene's Saturday slap plunged large portions of the region into the 19th century. There was no milk for the new baby on the block, and no rest for the car salesman with sleep apnea. "Power envy" was setting in. Fans couldn't catch the Phillies games they craved. Concerned calls from relatives went unanswered on dead phones. And nearly all the ice cream has melted. Like 15,000 other Peco Energy customers in the area and 75,000 folks in New Jersey, several households on Windsor Park Lane were still without power Tuesday.

By Kelly Prill My mother had one of those old hair dryers that came in a hard plastic case with golden buckles. On the days Mom set her hair, she'd call for one of us to get the case and open it. She'd remove the cap, fit it over her curlers, and draw it tightly around her head. Coiled around the motor was a clear, flexible hose that Mom would plug into the cap. Then she would sit and wait for the blast of hot air to dry her hair. My sisters and I would gather round, our curiosity piqued by this beauty regimen, holding our unpolished fingernails above an air outlet on top of the motor labeled "Nail dryer.

STATE REP. Robert Donatucci, a 30-year veteran of the General Assembly, died Monday night, apparently from complications due to sleep apnea. He was 58. Donatucci leaves behind a wife, Maria, and two children. Donatucci's brother, Philadelphia Register of Wills Ron Donatucci, said his younger brother was diagnosed with sleep apnea at Thomas Jefferson University Hospital in August. Donatucci said his brother, as chairman of the state House Committee on Liquor Control, was preparing for hearings anticipated next year on Gov.-elect Tom Corbett's proposal to sell the state store system.

Loud snoring and insomnia used to be merely annoying. Now they are big business. In Philadelphia and across the country, sleep-diagnostic centers are popping up and people once aggravated by a lousy night's sleep are getting help. One beneficiary of the push for more testing is a local company, Viasys Healthcare Inc., which makes medical equipment including devices to diagnose and treat sleep ailments like sleep apnea, a condition in which breathing stops repeatedly for brief periods during sleep.

For more than two years, my snoring kept Laura awake most nights. It often got so loud that she used earplugs and buried her head under a pillow to escape the din. Nothing worked, and we were both exhausted. I felt guilty for ruining her sleep, and I blamed her for disturbing mine when she roused me several times a night to shut me up. Now I no longer snore and we both sleep better. Each night for the last seven weeks, I have worn a breathing mask so air can be pumped through my nose and control my sleep apnea.

ZZ-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z-Z Every body has to have it. And suddenly Americans seem desperate to get it. The search for deep, uninterrupted, refreshing sleep has become a national obsession. It's driving everything from the development of new prescription sleeping pills to extensive bed makeovers in hotel chains. In just 10 years, certified sleep clinics in the United States have nearly tripled - from 297 in 1995 to 883 so far this year, with more on the way. Sleep medicine has recently become an approved specialty and the number of sleep doctors is soaring - doubling in the last decade to 3,000 today.