The Journal.
Every essay, review, field note, and interview we've published. New pieces arrive on Tuesdays; full issues close every three months.
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.
I Tried Three Ways to Screen for Obstructive Sleep Apnea Before My Sleep Study. Only One Was Honest.
Five events an hour. That is the line a sleep physician draws between "fine" and "you have obstructive sleep apnea" — five breathing interruptions per hour of sleep, each at least ten seconds long, is…
The Best VR Accessory for Your Quest 3 Might Be the One That Lets You Stop Wearing It
The most useful thing you can buy for a Meta Quest 3 is not a better controller or a louder pair of strap-mounted speakers.
I Wore a Home Sleep Test for Three Nights: What Obstructive Sleep Apnea Actually Looks Like on a Chart
My wife has told me for years that I stop breathing in my sleep. I assumed she was exaggerating, the way you do when someone interrupts an argument with your own snoring.
Sleep Apnea and Blood Pressure: Which One Is Driving the Other?
In a cardiology clinic, the question comes up again and again, usually phrased with some frustration: Did the apnea give me high blood pressure, or did my blood pressure mess up my sleep?
I Slept With a Pulse Oximeter for a Week to Understand Obstructive Sleep Apnea
For seven nights I clipped a $40 pulse oximeter to my finger before bed — the kind sold for hikers worried about altitude, with a continuous-recording mode and a strap so it doesn't fall off when you…