While the stereotypical obstructive sleep apnea patient is male, that’s changing as more women present with the disorder, according to Providence Journal.
During her worst spells of sleep apnea, Jenn Foisy was lucky to escape mishap. Many mornings she awoke exhausted, her mind cloudy, her body starved of true rest, and got behind the wheel.
“At the time, I was driving the length of [Route] 295 to work every day, and I would be falling asleep while driving down the road, actively clutching the wheel, saying ‘I need to wake up. I need to wake up,’” recalled Foisy, a special-education teacher and mother who has run marathons.
Blasting the radio and rolling the window down didn’t help. Deprived of the restorative power of proper sleep, her life was in danger.
