Sometimes he would fall asleep at a stoplight. Sometimes when he was sitting in a chair at home.
"I would doze off anywhere I would park my carcass," said Scott McCollister, 49, a mechanic and maintenance technician at Sinai Hospital.
Norman James, now 14, developed trouble paying attention at William H. Lemmel Middle School last year. His grades dropped but his mother, Joann McGowen, was just as alarmed by Norman's snoring - so intense that it penetrated from one floor to another of their Walbrook Avenue home.
"It was so loud you'd hear it no matter what," she said.
Both Norman and McCollister were eventually diagnosed with sleep apnea - which means they stopped breathing in their sleep.
Apnea is one of several common sleep disorders that affect millions of people and cost billions in lost work and medical bills. As more Americans realize they're suffering from it, sleep clinics in Maryland and other states are expanding to keep up with the demand for treatment.
Even so, according to a nationwide group of experts who reported yesterday, sleep problems are too often ignored and underrated as serious health threats.
As a result, the Institute of Medicine called for more research, better training for doctors and a campaign to educate the public about the importance of a good night's sleep.
"We think there's a problem with diagnosing these disorders, and there's an under-appreciation of them," said Dr. Harvey Colten, a professor of pediatrics at Columbia University Hospital and chairman of the IOM panel.
Between 50 million and 70 million Americans don't get the sleep they need to stay healthy, increasing their risk of cardiovascular disease, heart attack, diabetes, obesity and stroke, the report declared.
Sleep apnea alone affects up to 18 million people. But unlike McCollister and James, 75 percent of those who suffer from it never get a diagnosis, the report said.
The stakes are high. Estimates in the 1990s put the cost of treating sleep apnea, insomnia and less common disorders such as restless leg syndrome and narcolepsy at $15.9 billion. The IOM report says that's probably conservative.
Sleepy drivers cause about 100,000 car accidents a year, and fatigue costs business billions in lost productivity, according to the National Sleep Foundation.
Colten said three factors are fueling an increasing concern about sleep disorders: better diagnostic tools, an aging population that finds it hard to get a good night's sleep and a society increasingly focused on a 24-hour, caffeinated lifestyle.
