Monday, March 28, 2011

It's Raining, It's Pouring, and Uncle Paco Is . . .

In the past, I've talked about the concept of "blind spots" here on the Epistle. As a recap, I use the term blind spots (taken from a talk by John Bytheway) to refer to those habitual things that we all do that embarrass us - things that perhaps might be quite obvious to others without our noticing the problem at all.

Well, yesterday I became somewhat more aware of one of my blind spots: snoring. It's not the type of blind spot that I I necessarily have any control over, though it does cause me some embarrassment to hear about. To a certain degree, I can control when and where I sleep and, as a result, snore.

It's been a rather confusing thing for me, too, because my snoring seems to have begun to occur only in the past couple of years or so. I never heard any of my missionary companions comment about it, and I can only assume it wasn't a problem - or much of one - back then.

Going back to yesterday, I momentarily dozed off at our bi-monthly family dinner at Mike and Jana's house. My parents and siblings were already somewhat aware of my snoring, but my nieces and nephews, some of who were playing nearby, were not. As I awoke, my brother talked to me and mentioned that the monstrous noises coming out of me were a little bit unnerving to the kids, in particular to my two-year-old niece, Kira. (Poor thing; I can't say that I blame her.)

Is anybody out there familiar with any techniques to stop or at least tone down one's snoring? Just wondering aloud - for future reference.

2 comments:

bookladydavina said...

you should go in for a sleep study to evaluate you for sleep apnea. You may need to use a cpap machine at night. Since this is a recent thing, it might not be too bad yet, but if left alone, it could wind up getting nasty... but, not being the svelte young man you once were, your wind pipe might be getting blocked when you sleep. (I speak from experience, and after getting my cpap, it was a total change and wonderful. I didn't know how badly I'd been sleeping prior to that...)

Jonathan Plowman said...

Thanks for the advice, Davina. (And thanks for choosing your words - i.e. "svelte" - so carefully.) I will definitely look into it.