Trains, Planes, Automobiles & Sleep Apnea

I travel quite a bit with my work. Last year, I flew over 100,000 miles with just one airline and spent more than 100 nights in various hotel rooms around the world. And no, traveling is not all that's it's cracked up to be.

Many years ago I thought that a job requiring extensive travel would be glamorous and exciting. I never anticipated all the changes that would impact traveling post-9/11. And that's not to mention time zone changes and sitting in a small, uncomfortable seat for hours on end with the only reward a bag of peanuts and a soft drink — if you're lucky!

On the bright side, I get to meet a lot of interesting people through my travels. Conversations usually flow into areas of work and family. One question I am often asked is, “What kind of work do you do?”

Five years ago my response was labored and well-thought out, since few people in the general public knew much about the growing problem associated with sleep apnea. People would relate to sleep apnea by joking about their uncle or brother-in-law who “snored like a freight train.”

I would go through a detailed explanation to a fellow passenger describing as best I could in non-technical, non-threatening terms the life-threatening nature of sleep apnea and the simple, non-invasive treatment that was available. Usually, I would hear the following polite reply: “Oh, that sounds interesting, but I could never have something like that.”

But over the past couple of years it seems like someone has let the cat out of the bag on this silent but deadly disease. Recently, when a conversation with a fellow traveler led to the inevitable question about what I do for work, I tried a new approach I learned from a friend in sleep medicine. I simply told the gentleman I worked in the medical industry for a company that develops products to treat sleep suffocation.

Immediately he told me that he had been diagnosed with a sleep disorder and now wears a “funny little breathing mask with a machine attached to it that blows a gentle breeze” into his lungs. He went on to say how much better he feels and that he has a new lease on life. He said his wife now also gets a good night's sleep since he isn't tossing and turning and snoring, which previously had kept her awake and often forced her to sleep in another part of house.