TREASURE COAST MEDICAL REPORT
Sweeter
Dreams
Sleep disorders can have wide-ranging effects on your
health. Luckily, more help is available to get a better
night’s sleep.
134
SLEEP
BY SUE-ELLEN SANDERS
PHOTOS BY PORFIRIO SOLORZANO
Jose Bravo had a problem. He slept
all night, but every day he was so
tired that he fell asleep in his office
chair or caught himself dozing off at
the wheel of his car. At 33, Bravo was a
busy supervisor at a building truss
company, husband and father of a toddler.
“But I was sleepy all the time,” he
says.
Urged by his wife to visit the sleep
clinic, Bravo was diagnosed with sleep
apnea, a simple problem that affects
more than 12 million Americans. Tests
showed he stopped breathing in the
middle of the night for just a few seconds,
up to 300 times every night. The
doctor prescribed an oxygen machine
known as a CPAP that, attached to a
sleep mask, provides extra oxygen to
his body throughout the night.
Five months later, Bravo is a changed
man. “Before, any time there was a little
complication, I would get so irritated,’’
said Bravo, who lives in Port St.
Lucie. “I never had any energy, even to
play with my daughter. Now, I’m calm
>>
Jason Bray gets some shut-eye during testing on a recent Friday night at the
Sleep Disorders Center in Port St. Lucie.