There was also Kate Hill, a mother and nurse student, who was about to embark on the next chapter in her career – and impending shift work at the hospital didn’t bode well for this insomniac who has tried everything, including sleeping pills. Comedian Jon Brooks wasn’t joking when he said he was tired of constantly feeling low in energy and mood because of his COMISA, a double whammy of chronic insomnia and sleep apnoea.
Adam Vale, a father and Christian pastor, still couldn’t find a solution for his severe obstructive sleep apnoea or OSA, the most common form of sleep apnoea, despite the rather drastic surgery he underwent. Before signing up for the research, he’d had his tonsils, uvula and a third of the base of his tongue surgically removed.
And it’s not only Australians who are feeling very sleepy. Close to three in 10 Singaporeans are not satisfied with their sleep quantity and quality, especially those aged 45 years and above, according to the 2024 Global Sleep Survey from ResMed that involved 36,000 worldwide participants, of which, 1,000 were from Singapore.
Sleep appears to elude the younger population in Singapore as well. The same survey showed that 15 per cent of those from the 18-to-24-year-old cohort had interrupted sleep ever since they can remember.
