I dunno.

I like to sleep a lot as well. Often this would coincide with depression and insomnia. Sometimes I would sleep as much as twenty hours a day. Usually though, I had to be content with ten hours a day while going to school or working. Still, I would feel tired most of the day. I would fall asleep on the bus or sitting in a chair or couch.

Then, my psychiatrist suggested I go to a sleep disorder clinic. While I was at the sleep disorder clinic, they had lots of wires hooked up to me as well as a machine to monitor my breathing.

They found out I have SLEEP APNEA. Basically, this means I stop breathing in the middle of the night. Your body's reaction is to wake up, but you never wake up fully...nor do you sleep that well either. According to this study, I would stop breathing 120 times a night!

www.nhlbi.nih.gov/health/dc...hatIs.html

So now I have a CPAP machine, which I wear while I sleep. CPAP stands for 'Continuous Positive Airway Pressure'. Basically, this pumps air in through my nose and keeps my esophagus inflated while I sleep. I live in Canada so the cost of the machine was covered. Otherwise the machines are about $100 brand new. I should tell you though that they have to be 'programmed' to your specific breathing patterns...so each CPAP is as specific to each person as a pair of prescription glasses are.

I happen to fit into the category of those who typically have Sleep Apnea since I am overweight and almost forty. Sleep Apnea is very common, about as common as Asthma. Rosanne Barr has Sleep Apnea. However, other 'skinny' people can get it as well, such as William Shatner. Snoring is common with people who have sleep Apnea, but not all snoring is caused by Sleep Apnea. Also, not everyone with sleep apnea snores.

Untreated sleep apnea can increase the chance of having high blood pressure and even a heart attack or stroke. Untreated sleep apnea can also increase the risk of diabetes and the risk for work-related accidents and driving accidents.

I was told at the sleep disorders clinic that untreated sleep apnea is a far, far greater health risk than smoking. Many people with untreated sleep apnea (like my Grandfather) die in their early fifties from a massive heart attack in their sleep.