Hindmarsh and Reddy Confess – We Are Chronic Snorers

Nathan Hindmarsh and ‘Rocket’ Rod Reddy are not just two of the most talented footballers of their eras. There is something else the pair have in common – they are both chronic snorers.

For years they kept their teammates awake the night before a crucial game and their partners awake at home. “I’ve known since my teens that I had a snoring problem because I used to keep my brother and sisters awake,” Parramatta Eels and Kangaroos star Nathan said. “Then, when I started going into football camps, I was rooming with other players and they used to complain they couldn’t get any sleep.

“It got bad when I reached first-grade because, you see your roommate asleep and I was frightened to fall asleep in case I woke them!”

Rod, who played for the Kangaroos, St George and Illawarra from 1976 to 1984, said his problem was so bad former international roommate Max Krillich, who is now a director at Manly, used to hit him with a golf club every time he snored.
“In all my 27 years of married life I’ve snored and I was used to my wife pushing me in the back every time I woke her.

“Max Krillich was a little more brutal and whacked me with a golf club regularly! Whenever I went to camp with the Eels players, I would keep the whole camp awake with my snoring.”

Nathan’s girlfriend Bonnie and Rod’s wife Virginia also suffered. “I’m used to copping an elbow in the ribs or being pushed over because Bonnie can’t get any sleep,” 26-year-old Nathan said.

But SomnoMed has come to the rescue of Nathan, Rod, their team-mates and their partners. SomnoMed Limited, based in Sydney, makes an oral appliance similar to a mouthguard that helps stop snoring and obstructive sleep apnoea, a potentially fatal condition.

It works by slightly advancing the lower jaw forward to stop the muscles in the throat relaxing; which causes the snoring. Nathan and Rod now wear the devices every time they sleep.

“I have noticed a definite difference. I feel more refreshed every day because I’ve had a decent night’s sleep and so does Bonnie,” he said. “I can relax when I share a room with a teammate the night before a game because I don’t spend half the night worrying anymore.

“You never know what a better night’s sleep is going to do for me – and for whoever is rooming with me!”
Rod agrees. “Now I’m used to wearing it, I’m happy, my wife Virginia’s happy and the lads at the Eels are happy,” he said.

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