As a doctor, I’ve been called many things over the years, both personally and professionally.

“Imbecile. Moron. Dummy. Dolt. Nitwit. Ignoramus. Idiot. First-class idiot. Second-opinion mistake.”

That’s just one person. Others have been equally frank.

“You’re a quack.”

“You’re nuts.”

“You’re crazy.”

“You’re so clueless.”

“You’re ignorant, rude, and conceited.”

Most patients profess a healthy dose of skepticism.

“You’re telling me that I have to look like an orangutan to be happy?”

“I’m ugly on the outside and inside?”

“So my life sucks because my face is stuffed like a Thanksgiving turkey?”

And the one I hear most often.

“Did you tell me to SHUT UP?”

It’s not easy to mend or wipe away the tears. To listen or lay bare one’s innermost secrets and fears. To hold the hand of someone in pain, to feel their horror and sadness, or to be the one who endures the pain, unable to escape a grave reality. No one ever said it was easy to be the doctor or the patient. Yet here we are. Together. This evening. With no distance between us.

Breathing is the foundation of sleep.

It is time to understand how you have changed the way you breathe, the resultant destructive effects on development, and the entailing pervasive disturbances of sleep and life. In the end, your ailments will be cast in a new light; reason will be guided in another way. You will see how everything is connected by perceiving the secret, hidden order that oddly enough is everywhere, right before your eyes, yet all this time, you had been blind to its influence.

Behold the checklist. It is an overview of critical concepts. The book guides you through each point. As you peruse each chapter, page by page, question by question, use the checklists to connect seemingly disparate symptoms and perceive how your disrupted sleep may be a downstream consequence of a broader breathing issue that began in childhood.

Chapter Five Conclusion