DIAGNOSIS
   A Composer's Sleep Apnea Lullaby
   By JOHN O'NEIL

   Johannes Brahms may have had a good reason for writing lullabies:
   he may have suffered from a sleep disorder, according to an article
   published last week in the journal Chest.

   Dr. Mitchell L. Margolis, a pulmonologist at the Philadelphia
   Veterans Administration Medical Center, wrote that the composer may
   have suffered from sleep apnea, a condition involving the interruption
   of breathing during sleep with consequences that can range from
   annoying to life-threatening.

   Heavy snoring is the most common clue to sleep apnea, but because
   Brahms never married, the most common form of documentation is missing.
   A traveling companion, however, once complained bitterly of the noise
   that Brahms made.

   But Dr. Margolis said that Brahms exhibited other common symptoms,
   including falling asleep at odd times and places (the sight of Brahms
   asleep in a Viennese cafe was common enough to draw tourists), an
   obese neck (the composer wore collarless shirts after age 50) and
   irritability. (Brahms is said to have announced once, "If there is
   anyone here I have not offended, I apologize.")

   "One wonders if the disorder contributed to lifelong alienation
   from friends and marriage," Dr. Margolis wrote, "thereby indirectly
   nurturing his determined devotion to the creation of his immortal
   music."

   (c) 2000, New York Times

Dave
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