Having just passed my 42nd birthday, I’ve come to terms with the fact that this was bound to happen eventually. I’ve said again and again that all modern humans are susceptible to breathing problems while sleeping, and I’m no exception. The only comfort I take is the fact that I did undergo a sleep study many years ago to see what it was like, and it revealed an AHI of 1, which is considered "within normal limits."  It did show that I had some mild disruptions in my deep sleep stages. I suspect it may creep up slowly as I get older. Fortunately, my weight has not changed—if anything, it’s gone down since I began running regularly. 

More recently, I’ve been sleeping well, and my energy level is pretty good, despite that fact that our 5 month old has been up at night repeatedly due to teething.

There’s now even more reason for me to follow the advice I give to my patients: don’t eat late, exercise regularly, keep your nose clear, and don’t sleep on your back. The one thing I’ll have to work on is to try sleeping more on my side since that brief obstructive episode happened while I was on my back. I’ll keep you posted.

The reason for bringing this up is that today, I feel great all of a sudden. The only difference that I can think of is that the sun shined in New York City for the first time in days, maybe even over one week. We’ve had either rain or overcast weather most of June. 

I realize now that I was probably suffering from a mild case of seasonal affective disorder (SAD), which affects susceptible people who either don’t get enough sunlight or during the winter season, when there’s much less sunlight. I didn’t think I could have this, but I guess things change as you get older.

For prolonged cases of SAD, bright light therapy is one way to treating this condition. Another way is to spend more time outdoors, even with the overcast skies. 

How many of you were also under the weather this past week?