My doctor, who’s new because I moved, referred me to a “sleep specialist” because I told him I snored heavily, am often tired during the day, and am overweight. The sleep specialist, after having me sleep with a bunch of wires strapped to me for a night, diagnosed me with “obstructive sleep apnea“, and is telling me I need a breathing machine for when I sleep at night as treatment. Also, he’s told me all sorts of stuff about health risks from the apnea: I’ll get to being fatigued to the point of narcolepsy, I’m at even more risk for an early heart attack, even though I’ve started going to the gym I won’t be able to lose weight, etc.

Now, what I want to know is, are there really health risks from sleep apnea, and is it a real problem, or is it just some sort of medical fad or scam?

I’ve recently been diagnosed with sleep apnea by a sleep clinic, and they’ve recommended that I start CPAP treatment. I’m extremely uncomfortable with this diagnosis because I didn’t GO to the sleep clinic for apnea–I was having trouble with snoring. In fact, in all our years of marriage, my wife says she has NEVER heard me stop breathing. I understand that it is just about impossible to snore while using a CPAP, but it also seems like a fairly serious solution for a relatively minor problem. In other words, I recognize that this treatment will WORK for me, but it seems like the cure is worse than the disease.

I’m getting the impression that these sleep pulmonologists might not be exactly the brightest kids right out of medical school. Does anyone know if this is a real treatment for snoring?