Dead Air: The Perils of Sleep Apnea

Tom Araya has been open about his battle with sleep apnea. “I love doing this. I just hate the travel,” Araya said in an interview before hitting the stage at Chicago Open Air. According to the metal artist and Slayer frontman, he has been having difficulty getting some good night’s sleep when going on tours because of his sleep apnea. He opened up about needing a CPAP and the overall struggle of not getting enough rest when he needed it, especially before a performance.

Retired NBA superstar Shaquille O’Neal and comedian and actress Amy Poehler are also known to have sleep apnea. In fact, O’Neal went to the Division of Sleep Medicine at Harvard Medical School for a series of tests after discovering his condition. Poehler, on the other hand, revealed in an interview, “Throughout my life, I have been told I snore so loudly that it sounds like I am dying or choking.” Regarding her CPAP machine, she joked, “You know it’s good for you, but most of the time you don’t feel like it.”