The earliest I can remember having any sleep difficulty was the college summer I spent living with my best friend in Los Angeles. We shared a room, and after two nights I came home from my job to find that she had moved her futon mattress into the closet, where she slept the rest of the summer. She could no longer stand what she called my "snoring and gasping." I shrugged it off as allergies from the smog.

Ten years later my nighttime drama seemed to be worsening: my husband, a light sleeper, would wake me in the middle of the night in a panic, saying, "Honey, you're not breathing!" Other times he would not have to wake me because I'd shoot into a sitting position gasping for air.

I tried nasal strips, humidifiers and allergy medication. Nothing worked. My husband became increasingly concerned and wanted me to see a doctor, but it wasn't until after we watched a news story about sleep apnea that I too became concerned. I seemed to have all the symptoms: in addition to my nightly chortling, I fell asleep in under five minutes and slept for 10-12 hours at a time if I didn't set an alarm, yet I never felt rested.

The typical sleep apnea patient is middle-aged, overweight, smokes, and/or lives a sedentary lifestyle. I thought, "How could I have sleep apnea?" I was 28, thin, fit and a nonsmoker. Nonetheless, I made an appointment with a pulmonary doctor who recommended I undergo a sleep study.

The Sleep Study
One evening a few months later I arrived at Georgetown Hospital at 9:00 p.m., and 30 minutes later a technician directed me to my room, which had been halfheartedly decorated to look like a bedroom (except for the cold tile floors). I sat in an easy chair and read until the technician returned to pour a cold gel that smelled like a mixture of motor oil and turpentine on my scalp, face, chest, stomach and legs, pasting electrodes at various sites. It was uncomfortable but painless.

By 10:45 p.m. I crawled into bed while the technician held all the cords that connected me to the monitoring machine. After some maneuvering to find a position that I could sleep in for the next several hours, the technician banded the cords and set them next to me. After she left, I lay there and worried about how I would sleep with the cords snaking out from me and the cold, wet sensation on my head. But it was quiet and dark in the room, and I soon fell asleep.