Owen Blackwell
Obstructive Sleep Apnea Treatment: One Airway, Many Doors
The pulse oximeter clipped to my finger recorded a number I did not want to see. At 3:14 a.m., my blood oxygen had dropped to 84 percent. Twelve seconds later it climbed back to 96.
Postprandial Somnolence: Why Lunch Makes You Sleepy, in the Order It Actually Happens
You finish lunch, sit back down at your desk, and within forty minutes the screen starts to blur. You've probably been told why: blood rushes from your brain to your gut to handle the meal, and your…
Sleep Apnea in Pregnancy: Three Trimesters, Compared by What Actually Goes Wrong
A pregnant woman snoring is one of those things the culture has decided is harmless and a little funny. Partners mention it the way they'd mention a craving.
What Actually Happens After a Sleep Apnea Diagnosis (and What the Pamphlet Won't Tell You)
There is a number on the report. For obstructive sleep apnea it's called the AHI — the apnea-hypopnea index — and it counts how many times per hour your breathing stopped or shrank past a threshold…
Do Women Really Need More Sleep Than Men? What the Sleep Biology Actually Says
There is a number that gets passed around like a fact: women need 20 extra minutes of sleep a night. Sometimes it's framed more dramatically — women need more sleep because they use their brains…
I Followed One Breath Through a Brain With Central Sleep Apnea
If you have been told you have central sleep apnea and you assumed it was a milder, or perhaps a deeper, version of the snoring-and-choking condition your spouse has, the single most useful correction…
Your Sleep Quality Assessment Is Already Happening — You Just Aren't Reading the Results
Most people get a sleep quality assessment every single morning and throw it away before breakfast. It arrives as a feeling — the gray, underwater sensation of waking unrefreshed, the third snooze…
The Stuffy Nose Nobody Warned You About: Nasal Congestion and Sleep Apnea Therapy
You bought the machine to breathe better at night. Three weeks in, you wake up with a nose so blocked you could pack it for shipping.
Morning Headaches and Sleep Apnea: When the Pain in Your Skull Is a Signal from Your Airway
There is a specific kind of headache that arrives with consciousness. You open your eyes, and before your feet hit the floor, you can already feel it: a dull, bilateral pressure across the forehead or…