That’s what happens when you haven’t had a proper night’s sleep in months. When sleep apnea rules your nights and exhaustion rules your days.
That crash was my wake-up call.
My wife Jamie and I had a perfect life. 25 years of marriage. Two beautiful kids. A thriving business.
Then the snoring started.
It got so bad, Jamie had to wake me several times each night. Once, I found her sleeping on the floor with a pillow over her head.
We tried everything – nasal strips, chin straps, ear plugs. Nothing worked.
Finally, I was exiled to the basement couch. In 25 years of marriage, we’d never slept apart.
How’s that for making it more digestible? Should we continue with the next section?
The Doctor’s Warning Changed Everything
You have obstructive sleep apnea,” the specialist said. “Your breathing stops multiple times per hour while you sleep.”
He explained it simply: The muscles in my throat were relaxing too much at night, cutting off my airway.
No wonder I was always exhausted.
The Warning Signs You Shouldn’t Ignore
The specialist explained that sleep apnea does more than just make you tired. Your body is fighting a nightly battle you don’t even know about.
For me, it started with the snoring – so loud it drove my wife to sleep on the floor. Then came the morning headaches and the constant fog that made work feel impossible.
The scariest part? My blood pressure was climbing, and my mood was getting darker by the day. The doctor said this was typical – sleep apnea doesn’t just ruin your nights, it slowly chips away at your health.
“Unfortunately,” he added, “traditional treatments haven’t improved much in years.” That’s when he walked me through the usual options.
“Unfortunately,” my doctor added, “traditional treatments haven’t improved much in years.”
The doctor said I was a candidate for a breathing assisting device known as CPAP, or a continuous positive airway pressure machine, which uses positive pressure to keep the airway open during sleep.
The “Solutions” That Made Everything Worse
First came the CPAP machine. Picture trying to sleep with a vacuum cleaner strapped to your face. My wife said I looked like Darth Vader, and romance was definitely not in the cards.
Next, we tried chin straps and nasal devices. Not only were they uncomfortable, but they made me feel like I was prepping for a wrestling match instead of a good night’s sleep. After a week, they ended up in our drawer of failed solutions.
Even changing sleep positions didn’t help. The doctor suggested sleeping on my side, but I’d always wake up on my back, gasping for air. Every morning felt worse than the last.
I was spending hundreds on treatments that either didn’t work or made me feel like a medical patient instead of a husband. That’s when my wife decided to take matters into her own hands.
The Simple Solution My Wife Discovered
That’s when Jamie found the Derila pillow online. At first, I was skeptical – how could a pillow solve what expensive medical devices couldn’t? But Jamie gave me an ultimatum: Try the pillow, or get comfortable with the basement couch.
