Published: April 23, 2008 10:45 pm            

Mark Maynard: The mask equals zzz for me: 4/24/08

I’m a member of an unusual club, if you will. We don’t have weekly meetings — shoot, we don’t even have annual ones — but we all sleep better these days.

I’ll call us the Brotherhood of the Mask.

For the past 11 years, when it is time for bed, I put on my CPAP mask and drift off into a restful night’s rest almost instantly. No tossing and turning, no breathing episodes when your spouse wonders if you’ll ever breathe again, no getting up in the middle of the night to watch television in the easy chair.

Until you’ve done without that restful night of sleep, you don’t know what you’re missing. Ask anyone who has been diagnosed with sleep apnea.

I know because I have sleep apnea. But I didn’t know why my sleeping patterns were getting worse and worse about a dozen years ago.

I was traveling a lot at the time, covering Kentucky home basketball games on a regular basis and even going with the Wildcats during the postseason to places such as Salt Lake City, Philadelphia, Dallas and New York. It was great fun, except for the lack of sleep.

I can remember waking up in the middle of the night, sitting straight up in bed, and wondering why that was happening. I chalked it up to being on the road, away from my own bed.

But as it turned out, it wasn’t just on the road where the sleeping troubles started becoming more pronounced. The final straw came when I hyperventilated late one night after a breathing episode while in a hotel room in Florida with my wife. She was ready to call 911. We decided something had to be done.

My snoring was legendary — still is without the mask. I inherited that trait from my father. I’ve been told his father would have been in the snoring hall of fame.

One of my late colleagues, Tony Curnutte, dubbed me Sven the Lumberjack after trying to stay the night with me at a hotel room in Lexington. It got so bad, Tony jumped out of his bed, took his pillow and covers into the bathroom, turned on the fan, shut the door and climbed into the tub.

Still, the snoring kept him awake all night. Bless his heart.

My daughter still can’t stand the sound of snoring, even from the dog. Anytime we’d go on vacation or even an overnight stay, she would ask “Did you pack the mask?”

I may leave home without the American Express card. But I won’t leave home without the mask. Trust me.

And imagine the plight of my sweet wife, who always had to get to sleep first or she knew it would be a restless night in bed. As eluded to earlier, the spouse also has to endure the are-you-ever-going-to-start-breathing-again syndrome that comes with a victim of sleep apnea.

My wife loves the mask probably as much as I do. She kids me, saying it’s like being in bed with Darth Vader. But now she gets a restful night’s sleep, too.

So, as you can see, sleep apnea affects more than just the one who has it.

I tell anyone and everyone who will listen about how this CPAP machine probably saved my life and how sleeping eight consecutive hours in a night is like a blessing from heaven. You won’t believe what you’re missing.

If you have any of the symptoms I’ve experienced — constant tiredness, excessive snoring that startles you out of bed or you just aren’t sleeping at night at all — please get it checked.

The fix may be as simple as joining the Brotherhood of the Mask.

By the way, we welcome females to the club and membership dues are free.

MARK MAYNARD can be reached at mmaynard@dailyindependent.com or (606) 326-2648.

        

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