Ron Grey, 74, suffers from sleep apnoea - a little known condition that means his throat muscles collapse during sleep causing him to stop breathing for up to 40 seconds at a time.

Around 300,000 people in the UK are estimated to have the condition, which deprives the sufferer of deep sleep, but for most it remains undiagnosed.

Mr Grey, of Deppers Bridge, first experienced a “character change” as a result of poor sleep around ten years ago.

He said: “I felt incredibly tired and would need to sleep during the day and couldn’t concentrate.

“I would feel this overwhelming sense of drowsiness and would never drive by myself in case I started to doze off.”

At first, Mr Grey thought it was due to a lactose intolerance, which has the same symptoms, but even when he followed a diary-free diet the drowsiness continued.

He said: “At 73 I had to renew my driving licence and there was a list of conditions you had to tick it if you thought you suffered from any of them.

“I knew I had a sleeping disorder and that it wasn’t narcolepsy - when people suddenly fall asleep - so thought it might be sleep apnoea.

“I went to my GP and told him I had to answer this question. I was referred to the ear, nose and throat unit at Warwick Hospital where they gave me some equipment to wear overnight to measure my heart rate, breathing and oxygen level.

“As a result of this I was sent to the sleep unit at the John Radcliffe Hospital in Oxford where it was confirmed that I had sleep apnoea.”

Mr Grey was given a simple mask to wear at night connected to an air tank, providing a continuous supply of pressurised air to prevent his airways collapsing.

He said: “The mask is perfectly comfortable and I’m feeling so much brighter during the day - my wife says she is just pleased to have got her husband back.

“If people think they have this condition they must go and ask their doctor about it - help is at hand now and the mask will become official NHS treatment.”

Sleep apnoea stops the sufferer from having deep and restful sleep as they experience pauses in breathing up to several hundred times a night.

As well causing great lethargy, it can lead to high blood pressure, heart disease, stroke, diabetes and sometimes depression.

From March, the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence will issue guidelines for the treatment of sleep apnoea.

This will mean that the treatment mask which Mr Grey has benefited from should become widely available on the NHS.

l To find out more about sleep apnoea visit the Sleep Apnoea Trust Association.

www.sleep-apnoea-trust.org