Billy Mays may have used cocaine and pain killers, but I guarantee you that he died of sleep apnea. If you want to confirm this find out what the time of death was. People who die in their sleep during the latter half of the night (4 to 6 am) typically die of sleep apnea (other notables, Reggie White, John Candy and Divine (from John Waters fame)).
Sleep apnea is a condition marked by snoring. Snoring is caused when the tissue in a person’s neck area begins to collapse around their airway and the tissue in the upper airway begins to flap. To picture this, did you ever blow up a balloon and partially pinch the end of it while letting out the air? It makes a sound similar to snoring. This is the first sign that a person may have sleep apnea. If a person snores, there may be likelihood that they are experiencing pauses in their breathing due to their airway collapsing. This is apnea. To picture this, did you ever drink a thick shake and the straw kept collapsing? The same thing happens when someone experiences sleep apnea. The tissue around their neck (the shake) collapses around their airway (the straw) when they try to inhale during sleep. When the airway collapses, air does not get in, when air doesn’t get in oxygen doesn’t get in. Oxygen levels in the body will decrease and the heart slows down sending a signal to the brain to arouse the body out of sleep (or in a lighter stage of sleep) to open up the airway and begin breathing. This is equivalent to getting poked in the shoulder. This process repeats itself over and over again throughout the night. We have patients who literally stop breathing up to 100 times an hour. Imagine getting poked in the shoulder 100 times an hour 7 nights a week 365 nights a year. No matter how long you sleep, you are forever tired throughout the day.
Combine the prospect of sleep apnea with REM (Rapid Eye Movement) sleep and you have the perfect recipe for dying in your sleep. When we sleep we go into different stages of sleep, some light some deep, and then there is the stage of sleep where we dream, REM sleep. REM sleep occurs in 90 minute cycles. Each night a person will go through 4 to 5 REM cycles. Each cycle will be longer than the last. The first REM period is typically 5 to 15 minutes with last cycle lasting 30 to 45 minutes. It is during this last REM cycle where the complications from sleep apnea can become deadly. During REM sleep the muscle tone in our bodies in our body drops off. (Some say this is an evolutionary process to keep us from acting out our dreams.) When the muscle tone drops off the airway becomes more compromised making it harder for the brain to arouse the body out of an apnea event. Typical 15 to 20 second pauses in breathing now become 30, 40, 60 second events. (I have seen as long as 1min 45 sec.). As a result of these longer events, oxygen levels can decrease to 60% (on a 100% scale) while the heart rate significantly decreases. The good new is that the brain will typically arouse the person out of sleep pulling them back from the brink of death every night. The ones that aren’t so fortunate typically experience an irregular heartbeat; if the brain does not catch it in time it will lead to a heart attack while they sleep.
Billy Mays had the perfect body type of a person who suffers from sleep apnea, short neck, big shoulders and extra weight around the midsection. If you combine sleep apnea with his hectic schedule you might understand his need for something to keep him going. Because of his celebrity he probably had access to remedies that the general population would not have. Further evidence is that he had untreated hypertension and an enlarged heart. These are byproducts of living with sleep apnea year after year. The constant variability in a person’s heart rate due to sleep apnea is a main factor contributing to this.
Sleep apnea is easily treated by using a device called CPAP. CPAP is an acronym for Continuous Positive Airway Pressure. The device is about the size of a toaster which is connected to a hose which attaches to a nasal mask. The machine delivers positive pressure that fights against the negative pressure that sucks in the airway. It is a wonderful device that helps people who have lived in a sleep deprived haze for 5 to 10 years and literally changes their lives around over night.
Sleep apnea affects approximately 18 million Americans (as many as diabetes) while only 2 to 3 million are diagnosed and treated. People treated for sleep apnea will also see their high blood pressure improve. Diabetics have seen better management in their blood glucose levels. I have also seen it save marriages, improve productivity and rescue people out of depression.
In conclusion, if you find out Billy Mays died in the early morning hours and he snored, I will guarantee you he met the same fate as those people I mentioned in the beginning of this post.
Mark Stoiber, President
The Sleep Wellness Institute