Apnea

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.

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.

Alex Buczala looked harmless enough as he sat quietly in a Children's Hospital of Philadelphia annex, expertly thumbing his Game Boy. But he was there, his parents said, because he was wreaking havoc on himself and them. The problem was sleep. Alex, a shy, freckled 7-year-old from Chester County, wasn't getting enough, and, as a consequence, neither were his parents, Sharon and Jim. First, he couldn't fall asleep by himself. He was afraid of monsters, so his father would sit with him in his well-lighted bedroom until he nodded off. Or Alex climbed into bed with his exhausted mother until he fell asleep and his father carried him to his own room.

The next time parents take their child for a medical checkup, they may be asked a new question: Does your child snore? The American Academy of Pediatrics is now urging its member doctors to include questions about snoring as a way of identifying children who may have a condition called obstructive sleep apnea syndrome. Sleep apnea is marked by breathing interruptions and sleep disturbances, and in children it has been linked to a host of problems including hyperactivity, attention and learning difficulties, slower growth, and high blood pressure.

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.

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.

Philadelphians who can't get a good night's sleep have plenty of places to turn for help. Eight hospitals in the city and suburbs treat sleep disorders, as do about a half a dozen in South Jersey. But although sleep problems have been studied here since the late 1970s, many people don't regard them as a valid medical condition until a crisis arises. Doctors say patients often don't seek treatment until they've fallen asleep at the wheel of a car, or on the job, or until a spouse delivers an ultimatum.

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.

Rip Van Winkle he wasn't. No matter how early Uyless Bradford tucked himself into bed, he never got a good, long sleep. The Willow Grove man, 37, had all the classic symptoms of sleep apnea. He had fallen asleep so often in school that he had been referred to special education classes. But in one sense, he was lucky. He was on the maintenance staff at Abington Memorial Hospital, which opened the area's first sleep disorders center three years ago. Co-workers who witnessed his daytime naps directed him to the center, which diagnosed his problem.