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This man woke up utterly exhausted every morning. The reason? He had been 'dying' forty times an hour in his sleep; Charles Garland: Now wears an air mask in bed.

Article Excerpt
Byline: RACHEL KAUFMAN

CHARLES GARLAND was still buzzing with adrenaline when he climbed into his car after directing two episodes of Big Break hosted by Jim Davidson.

Yet, within minutes, he had fallen asleep at the wheel as he drove on the M25. It was only for a second, but as the TV producer and director recalls: 'Suddenly there was a bridge coming towards me. Somehow, I managed to swing my car on to the hard shoulder just in time.

'It was absolutely terrifying. I could have killed myself or someone else and worryingly, this wasn't the first time it had happened.' On another occasion, he'd driven home late from the BBC only to find himself waking up driving on the wrong side of the road. Again, he managed to correct himself in the nick of time.

'After those two incidents, I made sure I checked into a hotel if I was working late, rather than do the hour-long drive home,' he says.

Charles, 57, had been fighting extreme tiredness for most of his life. For years he woke up feeling utterly exhausted, and he experienced many embarrassing episodes after falling asleep at inappropriate moments. Once, while playing an organ with a hotel band, he fell asleep in the middle of a song. At...

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