31.12.69
ABILENE, Texas - With every assail to the Hendrick Medical Center sleep labs, William Holloway has to submit to a few indignities.
There's the required attire, first and foremost: a with of electrodes that attach to his skull, chin, abdomen and calves. Removing the adhesives after each seating requires a healthy dose of rubbing liquor, and even then they still tear the hairs out of his skin.
But he will gladly take the teenager inconveniences of sleeping in a foreign bed, his body crisscrossed with wires, when faced with the possibility.
This is a man, after all, who spent half of his life unable to fantasy. His obstructive sleep apnea simply would not grant it. When Holloway drifted into sleep, the soft palate in the back of his door would relax to the point where it completely obstructed his airway. He'd snort back toward consciousness as his assemblage fought for air, relax again, only to have the cycle repeat.
Doze apnea, in that sense, really is the stuff of nightmares: it's one action removed from drowning in your own bed. The cumulative effects can rank from increased blood pressure to heightened risks of congestive tenderness failure and stroke.
Source: The Republic