The Journal.
Every essay, review, field note, and interview we've published. New pieces arrive on Tuesdays; full issues close every three months.
When Obstructive Sleep Apnea Comes With Company: The Lungs Next Door
I borrowed a fingertip pulse oximeter from a friend who climbs mountains, clipped it on before bed, and taped the little screen to the back of my hand so it faced the ceiling.
Sleep Apnea and Cardiovascular Risk: What the Stroke Numbers Actually Say
The line you'll hear in a sleep clinic, or read on the pamphlet they hand you after a positive home test, goes something like this: treat your apnea and you protect your heart and your brain.
Natural Sleep Aids and the 7-Minute Question: What Melatonin Actually Does
Somewhere in the last decade you probably absorbed a number, even if you can't place where: melatonin helps you fall asleep about seven minutes faster. Not seven hours. Seven minutes.
Sleep Apnea: What Actually Happens in Your Throat at 3 a.m.
The loudest thing about sleep apnea is the silence. A partner learns the rhythm: the snore that builds, crests, and then — nothing. Five seconds. Ten. Twenty.
I Filed a Sleep Apnea Claim With the VA: What the Process Actually Takes, Tested Three Ways
A veteran whose obstructive sleep apnea requires a CPAP machine is rated by the VA at 50% disability — flat, automatic, no argument about severity once the machine is prescribed.
Sleep Apnea Treatment: What the Number "29 Events Per Hour" Can and Can't Tell You
Most people with sleep apnea leave the clinic holding a single number. Mine was 29. Yours might be 14, or 52, or somewhere past 80.
Sleep Apnea Causes: Why "Lose Weight and It'll Go Away" Is Only Half True
You have probably heard the short version. Somebody snores, somebody stops breathing in the night, and the advice arrives almost before the diagnosis does: lose some weight and it'll clear up.
The 6 a.m. New Year's Resolution: I Spent 30 Days Tracking Whether an Earlier Wake-Up Actually Made Me Better
Every January, the same resolution surfaces in my notes app like a buoy: wake up at 6 a.m. It is one of the most common New Year's resolutions in the wellness-adjacent world I live in — earlier…
Why CPAP Therapy Dries You Out — and the Physiology of Fixing It
A machine that saves your life shouldn't make you dread bedtime. But for a large share of people who start CPAP therapy, that's the bargain on offer: fewer apneas, deeper sleep, a heart that stops…
Sleep Apnea Is Not Really a Sleep Problem
Obstructive sleep apnea is filed in the wrong drawer. We call it a sleep disorder, treat it in sleep clinics, and measure it in events per hour of sleep.