‘Twas the night before Christmas, when all through the house
Not a creature was stirring, nor even a mouse;
The stockings were hung by the chimney with care,
In hopes that St. Nicholas soon would be there;

The children were nestled all snug in their beds,
While visions of sugar-plums danced in their heads;
And mamma in her ‘kerchief, and I in my cap,
Had just settled down for a long winter’s nap,

When all of the sudden there arose such a snore,
It was a noise that shook me to the core.
I glanced across my bed to see mamma pause in her breathing,
I panicked as I knew she should be restfully sleeping.

The look on her face as she gasped for more air
Told me that mamma’s sleep had hit a snare.
When, what to my wonder as I started to Google her woes,
But a blog post about how sleep apnea was our foe.

With a bit more digging, I found out about how
mamma needed a sleep study right now.
More rapid than normal breathing there came,
As I shook mamma awake so her air I could tame.

“Now mamma, your snoring and snorting, your gasping and pauses,
Should no longer be the cause of many nights of sleep losses.
Off to the sleep clinic we’ll dash,
So we can get your sleep apnea diagnosed in a flash.”

As dry leaves that before the wild hurricane fly,
When they meet with an obstacle, mount to the sky,
So off to the sleep clinic we flew,
With the car full of blankets, pillows, and mamma too.

And then, in a twinkling, the study was done.
We heard the results that apnea was the one,
That caused dear mamma so many sleepless night.
We now had an answer and a plan that would set mamma right.

So back to our home did we bound,
And a brand new CPAP machine in our hand.
A bundle of equipment mamma had flung on her back,
And she looked like a peddler just opening her pack.

Her eyes — how they twinkled! her dimples how merry!
Her cheeks were like roses, her nose like a cherry!
Her small little mouth was drawn up like a bow,
As she heard the air from the CPAP begin to flow;

Mamma put on the mask as the CPAP went straight to work,
And drifted off quietly off to sleep without even a jerk.
The CPAP was working as we all drifted off to sleep;
Once more the house was all quiet, without even one peep.

I sighed with relief as the CPAP helped mama to rest,
As I knew this night before Christmas would be the best.
As I drifted off with the snoring out of sight,
I thought to myself: HAPPY SLEEPING TO ALL, AND TO ALL A GOOD NIGHT!