STOP THE SNORING!

STOP THE SNORING!
Ralph Schoenstein
New York: Warner Books, 1997
132 pages, paperback, $4.99
ISBN 0-446-60460-7

Reviewed by Lynne Lamberg

This is an easy to read introduction to snoring and sleep apnea. It is aimed at both those who have been told they snore and their family members, as is suggested by a line on the book's cover: "At last, end your mate's nocturnal noise."

Schoenstein describes himself as a layman with a snoring problem, who consulted several sleep specialists to find out what to do. He incorporates direct quotes from these experts into his text. Conversations with his wife, interspersed through the book, provide insight into the impact of sleep apnea on family members.

Most persons with sleep apnea are overweight, he notes, but "thin people do snore, too." He tells us his wife complains about his snoring, and describes a couple they know in which the husband usually sleeps in another room, but sometimes joins his wife in the middle of the night, prompting her to move to another room.

Schoenstein describes an evaluation in a sleep lab, and presents the patient's view clearly. He does not gloss over its cost, typically $1000 or more a night, nor its discomforts. "Sleep center directors say that most people have no trouble falling asleep at the center," he writes, "but there is room for doubt."

His chapter on continuous positive airway pressure (CPAP), a technique to keep airways open in sleep, is titled: "CPAP--The Best But Maybe Too Much." Physicians focus on improving breathing, he notes, but patients fret about a sense of claustrophobia from wearing a mask, trouble getting up in the night if they need to use the bathroom, and the impact of the device on a bedpartner. "Will the fires of romance burn for her," he asks, "when she embraces Hosehead? Your lips will be clear of the mask," he says, "but to kiss them, she will have to be upside down."

Schoenstein details his futile experiences with self-help devices, from a T-shirt designed to prevent back sleeping with pockets on the back for tennis balls, to nasal strips that purportedly widen nostrils. He tells when surgery is appropriate, and offers lifestyle tips: exercise, sensible eating, modest alcohol intake. Though a small book--only 66 pages of text, apart from a list of sleep disorders centers--this one packs a big punch.