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Your Guide to Sleep Disorders.
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My husband, Norman, often fell asleep watching television, and the kids snickered.  "Dad's getting old," my daughter would whisper.  But Dad wasn't really old.  In his early fifties, he was much too young to be sleeping his life away.

As the malady became worse, he'd  fall asleep  a dozen times a day, even in the middle of a sentence.  He often fell asleep while driving, creating a danger to himself and to others.  If I were there, I'd nudge him with my elbow or shout to wake him up.  Several times, however, he was alone and he landed in the ditch.

He loved his fishing, but eventually he had to give the sport up because of the danger of going to asleep and falling out of the boat.    

SNORING

Norman seemed to sleep heavily during the night.  The kids mumbled and grumbled about having their sleep disturbed by his loud  snoring,   Sleeping next to him, I realized he might have a health problem.  He seemed to  stop breathing  for short periods of time as he slept, only to awaken with a loud snort as he tossed restlessly.

As the years passed, these periods of disturbed sleep became more frequent.  Desperate for a  good night's sleep , I finally moved into the guest room.  Still I couldn't sleep.  Now I stayed awake and listened for his snoring to assure myself he was still breathing.

He refused to see a doctor.  He said he was just run down, and bought vitamins to increase his energy.  He didn't realize how frequently he fell asleep.  He could take a nap of three or four minutes during a sentence, wake up and continue talking as though there had never been a lapse.  

DETERIORATING HEALTH

His health continues to deteriorate.  Obese but unwilling to stay on a diet, he also often  drank too much .  Now he began to show increasing irritability and  depression.

Finally, after fighting the ailment for more than five years, he agreed to see a doctor.  Knowing Norman's penchant for avoiding the truth when it came to describing his condition, I phoned the clinic before his visit and described his  symptoms.

The doctor admitted him to the hospital for further tests.  Two days later, he suffered a severe heart attack  and was hospitalized for almost a month.  His doctor suggested that probably the sleepiness had been the result of his tired heart,

He seemed better for a couple of years, although the restless nights continued.  Then the restlessness increased, and the daytime sleepiness became increasingly worse.  Was he about to suffer another heart attack?  Finally I contacted a district nurse and she began a schedule of weekly visits.