Apnea Aids vs. Romance

Babbett Peterson thought there was nothing less sexy than her husband's snoring—until he brought home the cure.

The 47-year-old Trabuco Canyon, Calif., woman took one look at the plastic face mask, the long tubing and the whirring motor that ran all night and decided there were worse things than a few snuffles and snorts.

As far as she was concerned, the Continuous Positive Airway Pressure machine—known as a CPAP—was a threat to her 22-year marriage.

"Things were great in the bedroom," Peterson said. "Then there was this thing strapped to his head."

Peterson and her husband, Chris, a 47-year-old engineer, are among growing numbers of couples whose romantic lives have been derailed by sleep problems—or their solutions.

Bedtime troubles send three in 10 couples to separate rooms, according to a poll by the National Sleep Foundation, a nonprofit agency. About a quarter of people with partners and 10 percent of singles said sleep problems left them too tired for sex.

Snoring is the most obvious interference, sleep experts say, but some users contend that the most commonly prescribed cure—the CPAP machine—can put an even bigger damper on libido.

"It's a huge emotional loss," said Peterson, who works as an executive assistant. "I am a cuddler. I felt like I couldn't touch him."

Peterson's opinion isn't the most popular view in the online support group at www.sleepapnea.org, the Web site aimed at people who suffer from the serious sleep disorder that advocates say involves so much more than snoring.

People with obstructive sleep apnea have a problem that causes their airways to collapse during sleep, cutting off breathing sometimes dozens—or even hundreds—of time a night. Because they awake over and over, they're never fully rested and often wind up with the chronic, life-threatening consequences of extended sleep deprivation.

Compared to the possibility of high blood pressure, heart disease and stroke, looking less sexy at bedtime is a minor concern, said Barbara Ruggiero, who coordinates the southern Nevada chapter of the AWAKE support group run by the American Sleep Apnea Association.

"I couldn't have cared less," said Ruggiero, 49, a married mother of two from Las Vegas who started using a CPAP nearly three years ago. "It's not just the snoring; people do die from sleep apnea."

But while CPAP users are grateful for the treatment, dozens of posts on the popular apea Web sites reveal some also are worried about the social consequences of the cure.