Comment by raffraffraff

Incidentally, I believe I had sleep apnea when I was a kid, and for years into adult life until my wife elbowed it out of me.

My parents never thought I needed a diagnosis, but when I was just a few years old I got pneumonia from a bad cough and was prone to chest infections all my life afterwards. It was after I had whooping cough that my dad came in to check on me, and he noticed that I "wasn't breathing" (which he told to mum in a typically 'Irish Farmer'). She thought he was telling her that I was, in fact, dead and to my bedroom in a panic. Turns out she had previously noticed that I "didn't breathe". Basically, I'd appear to stop breathing entirely for very long periods of time. I think that the air would be very slowly leaking out for about a minute, and I'd be making a low whine noise. Then I'd take in a huge breath... and the low whine would begin again. I wasn't overweight, I was actually as thin as a rake, and my mother nicknamed me "Boney M" (which might show my age).

It was when I met my wife, back in the late 90s, that it became a "problem". She'd tell me I was making a terrible noise in my sleep, and I said "oh yeah, I do that". Every time my weird breathing woke her up, she treated it as if I were snoring: elbow me and say "YOU'RE DOING IT AGAIN". And I'd kinda wake up and then focus on breathing properly as a fell back asleep. I also took up running around that time.

After a few years the weird breathing (which, I now think, was asleep apnea) stopped. I had better sleep and woke refreshed, whereas all through my childhood, walking up and getting out of bed was a gargantuan effort. I could sleep till noon and still be foggy.

Anyway, aside from losing weight and doing cardio, maybe a watch that activated an elbow would be an idea?

Incidentally, another thing I trained myself to do was sleep with my mouth closed. I used to wake up extremely dry and absolutely need a pint of water beside the bed. I read once about surviving in the desert: keep your mouth shut too conserve moisture. So I'd intentionally keep my n mouth closed and breathe only through my nose. That worked too - except when I have a head cold, but I take antihistamines before bed to avoid blocked sinuses.