Some months ago, I was falling asleep during the day at "a drop of a hat." I was feeling quite dismal but matters came to a head when I fell asleep at the wheel of my car and nearly crashed. I was eventually diagnosed with sleep apnoea; unbelievably to me, every 2 minutes during the night I had completely stopped breathing! Imagine the stress that placed on my poor old heart?
I was supplied with a CPAP machine which I now use every night. I go to sleep at about 11pm, straight to sleep and wake at about 6.30am. I read for about 30 minutes, have a swim, get breakfast for my wife and self, help clean up and then go for about a 1.5hr bike ride. I could not have done this before in fact stayed in bed until late morning but now have done more around my property since then that I have for yonks! It is a very good contraceptive..try one and you will understand!!!
BUT, my symptoms were as follows: falling asleep as soon as I rested anywhere; snored that loud that I scared the grandkids; felt dismal; woke up with a very very dry mouth; got up to urinate at least 4 times a night; was irritable as hell. All of these symptoms have gone.
At this stage, I will probably be using the machine for the rest of my life but I don't care; the benefits truely outweight the disadvantages. I am grateful that there are such machines as CPAPAs.
I bring this to member's attention because my specialist has told me that there are thousands of people with this sleep disorder who don't realise that either they have it or that it can be treated. As an aside, I now know three skinny people who too have the disorder so it doesn't just affect us bigger ones.

I think I have commented on this before. I was diagnosed with Sleep Apnoea about 2 years ago and began to sleep with a CPAP Machine but found it dragged me down especially having to travel frequently with it. They are a pain to cart all over the country and internationally. I used the machine every night but hated it and found it terribly intrusive. In May last year I went on a Buteyko Course (Teaches you a different method of breathing). Since day 2 of the Buteyko course I have not used the CPAP machine and I no longer have any of the symptoms Doug has described above. Have a look at www.buteykocourses.com. It may be difficult to do a course from Springston (and its quite expensive but the CPAP Machine costs lots more). But if you are keen enough to overcome the problem I am sure you would find it worth your while to travel to attend a course.