It really does relate to the topic of sleep apnea, I promise.  

I was told years ago that I have insomnia. Since I don't sleep much this made sense to me. One site on the 'net says this about insomnia:

People with insomnia have one or more of the following:
difficulty falling asleep;
waking up often during the night and having trouble going back to sleep;
waking up too early in the morning;
unrefreshing sleep.

I have all of these problems, but I also have severe sleep apnea (see sleep study results in sleep studies forum), and all of these symptoms can be attributed to the apnea. The bipap machine doesn't completely resolve my apneas/hypopneas and I still wake from them and then have difficulty getting back to sleep. So, my question is...do I really have insomnia? Is this considered secondary insomnia, secondary to apnea?

I also have apnea and insomnia
I have trouble sleeping when I want to and also trouble staying awake when I want to
I had a problem with being unable to stay awake when a member of an audience and of course snored loudly when asleep......

you could try melatonin which some sleep labs use for these problems, get some good quality stuff, sadly didnt help me
IMO both are separate problems, my CPAP hasnt altered my insomnia

Insomnia is a study unto itself, but did you catch this great summary from Medscape last month?

Insomnia

sleepydave

Hi Lynn!

I hear ya. I've fallen asleep at the movie theatre many times, nodded off at parties, and come very close to falling asleep at my computer at work and while driving.

But then, at night, when I would love to sleep, here I am, haunting the sleep apnea forum and looking up obscure factoids on the internet. Whenever I manage to fall asleep it's interrupted by those pesky apneas. The alternative is to take sleep meds, wake up late, and then drag through the day in a post drug haze.

I'll look into the melatonin. Thanks for the suggestion.  

Thanks for the link, sleepydave!

I'm on my way to read it now.  

I've been made fun of since the age of 5 for being an insomniac.  "Oh, there's Rich up at 4 in the morning again!"
I started using melatonin and it does help with drowsiness (for me).
I have all the above problems, too.  When I should be in bed, I'm trolling around the internet or writing music.
During the day I'm a drowsy S.O.B.!  I knew I had to get looked at by a docter the 2nd time i crashed my car.  The first time just minor scratches as I drove into a ditch.  The second time I drove into a sign, ruining the entire right side of my car, and then into a ditch.
As much as I still am drowsy during the day, the CPAP, at least, has helped me stop crashing cars!  I'm glad I never hurt myself or others!
Of course, mu precription for Provigil has helped me with the long drive home, too.  Originally the doctor thought I might have narcolepsy as he was ordering the sleep study.   Oh, the joy!

just to chime in with my own experience....
for me my insomnia and apnea seem to be VERY much related, but - and this is a big "but" - my insomnia was almost exclusively that in which i had frequent awakenings, not problems with falling to sleep or problems falling back to sleep.  thus my sleep diagnosis was "sleep maintenence insomnia".  i've been on the CPAP less than a week and it has reduced my constant wakings to no more than 3 a night which is a huge improvement.  i'm not noticing major changes through the day at this point but my nights do feel a lot more restful.  

i did have occassional sleep onset issues/insomnia too but they usually correspond directly with flare-ups of other health issues for me and/or were - i think - related to my really not looking forward to yet another night of continually waking up.

that's my "insomnia link", thought obviously it's rather specific to the type of insomnia...for me the arousals/awakenings were in fact part of my apnea/hypopnea problem & not in fact insomnia.  (the fact that sleep meds made things worse not better may correspond with this as well.)

  melissa


_________________
"I get up, I walk, I fall down. Meanwhile I keep dancing." HILLEL

www.dinet.org
www.ndrf.org

hey sleepy dave, do you have to register to read that insomnia article on that link or is there another way to get it? thanks, mike


_________________
Thanks to all, Michael

Melatonin - I've seen this called out a few times but can't seem to find anything out about it. Is this really the correct spelling? What is it?


_________________
Run with my sense of humor.

garyb,

That is the correct spelling.  Just about any pharmacy "should" carry it.  

It is a chemical that is naturally produced in your brain to help regulate your circadian rhythm (your pattern of doing things at around the same time every day, including going to sleep and waking).  One thing it was suggested to me for is when I switched to working 3rd shift.  This is the only time I've ever taken it.  It is touted to help you make the transition to sleeping during the day as opposed to during the night.  It didn't help me, probably because I had untreated and undiagnosed apnea at that point.  If it's taken before bedtime, it can be safely used as a sleep aid because it's not a foreign matter to your brain.  

Please somebody else post here that has used Melatonin specifically to assist issues with apnea.  In good conscience, I can only post my own experiences.


_________________
<>< Sleepy Scott <><
Job 7:13-15