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Permalink Reply by Mary Z on April 21, 2012 at 5:32pm

You have insomnia-

there are different kinds- trouble falling asleep and trouble maintaining sleep.  No one should lay in bed for four hours waiting to go back to sleep.  I hope you are getting up and doing something relaxing- reading or listening to music.  This doesn't mean you don't have sleep apnea, but you would probably have trouble getting a sleep test ordered on the basis of your symptoms.  You should probably have a thorough physical to rule out physical causes of insomnia.  You can also review sleep hygiene- just google it and you'll find plenty of information.  For instance some people are very sensitive to caffeine, light, exercise, and  eating certain amounts of time before going to bed.  Alcohol can also affect sleep. Have you tried any of the OTC sleep meds?  Bebadryl is a good one, or melatonin.  If you don't like pills there are teas designed to help you relax and sleep.  I know  this is miserable and hope you can get a hanndle on things.  It will take a bit of work and troubleshooting/factfinding on your part. n You would be a good candidate for a ZEO- google that, too.

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Permalink Reply by Brian McCann on April 21, 2012 at 6:10pm

Thank you, Mary, that is helpful
 
Mary Z said:

You have insomnia-

there are different kinds- trouble falling asleep and trouble maintaining sleep.  No one should lay in bed for four hours waiting to go back to sleep.  I hope you are getting up and doing something relaxing- reading or listening to music.  This doesn't mean you don't have sleep apnea, but you would probably have trouble getting a sleep test ordered on the basis of your symptoms.  You should probably have a thorough physical to rule out physical causes of insomnia.  You can also review sleep hygiene- just google it and you'll find plenty of information.  For instance some people are very sensitive to caffeine, light, exercise, and  eating certain amounts of time before going to bed.  Alcohol can also affect sleep. Have you tried any of the OTC sleep meds?  Bebadryl is a good one, or melatonin.  If you don't like pills there are teas designed to help you relax and sleep.  I know  this is miserable and hope you can get a hanndle on things.  It will take a bit of work and troubleshooting/factfinding on your part. n You would be a good candidate for a ZEO- google that, too.

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Permalink Reply by Terry Vella on April 21, 2012 at 6:30pm

Brian, if you want to rule out sleep apnea or any of the other sleep disorders you need to have a sleep study conducted. It does sound like insomnia, depends on how long it has been going on. If it has only just started it is short term insomnia and sometimes meds will help, try the herbals as Mary suggested first. If it is long term, it will be you need to fix the cause not the symptoms, if you go to a Dr they wll give you meds to get you to sleep but that doesn't solve the problem it only stops the symptoms while you are on the meds. The problem is more than likely stress or anxiety or worry or a mixture of all three. You need to minimize them to solve the problem. This can be done by a number of ways without using drugs like CBT or Mindfulness. My suggestion is always try anything else except prescription meds, these should be a last resort, good luck. I'm regulary on another site for insomnia and depression and there are 5-10 posts about this each day and I offer the same advice.

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Permalink Reply by RockRpsgt on April 22, 2012 at 12:14am

True insomnia is rare. This condition is typically secondary or caused by something else. The source of the insomnia may be causing some sort of anxiety that you may or may not know about.

 

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22218631

 

CONCLUSIONS:

Inquiry regarding insomnia may improve clinical identification of OSA when screening for OSA in primary care. This finding possibly is unique to the evaluation of OSA in a primary care versus sleep laboratory sample. The predictive utility of insomnia may be specific to women.

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Permalink Reply by D. W. Conn on April 22, 2012 at 3:47am

Brian,

 First thing- See your primary care Physician. What you described is symptoms of sleep apnea. the waking unable to go back to sleep for hours...Insomnia is worse on the sleep.. but be safe check with a doc and lets nip this really quick.

IN mean time- no sodas coffee, tea etc. No decaf, decaf can be as much as 89% intact.

no lights in bedroom and do not go to bed until tired.

 

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Permalink Reply by Mary Z on April 22, 2012 at 7:55am

In going to the doctor I had in mind a check for physical causes- a quick google brought these conditions up. 

 "Among the many medical problems that can cause chronic insomnia are allergies,  benign prostatic hyperplasia (BPH), arthritis, cancer, heart disease,  gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD), hypertension, asthma, emphysema,  rheumatologic conditions, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's disease,  hyperthyroidism, epilepsy, and fibromyalgia. . Other types of sleep disorders,  such as restless legs syndrome and sleep apnea, can cause insomnia. Many  patients with chronic pain also sleep poorly."

I wasn't thinking about patching the problem with meds.

 

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Permalink Reply by Brian McCann on April 22, 2012 at 6:15pm

Thanks to all who have taken the time to reply to this post.  They all have been informative and caused me to do more research, this has really gotten me worried.  I researched the suggestions that Mary originally made about sleep hygiene and was relieved to find I am already are free of those.  And I am also in agreement about not wanting to do meds to fix the sympton.  One of the many reasons that I want to know as much about this as I can before going to a doctor.

 

I had another bad night last night and also came across a new sympton that I had never exhibited before: deep throat breathing, almost a grunting sound.  After my usual routine of taking forever to fall asleep, falling asleep, waking up and falling back to sleep again, my throat hurt when I woke up this morning and still feels swollen as of this post.  Sounds closer to apnea now.

 

I also read about some exercises you can do to open your passageways and am going to try those.  Anyone have experience with that?

 

I am going to keep reading.

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Permalink Reply by Terry Vella on April 22, 2012 at 7:35pm

Brian, I can't say don't worry because we all worry about our medical conditions, I think at least you are on the right track regarding researching and continuing your search. Sleep apnea like other medical illnesses take many forms and the symptoms are different in all of us. I'm 49 was 20 kilos (40 pounds) underweight and didn't snore but stopped breathing 30 times an hour, was never really tired even though I only got 1-2 hours sleep per night, so I didn't really fit the typical SA profile and was instead diagnosed with depression.

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Permalink Reply by Mary Z on April 24, 2012 at 8:23am

Brian, there has been some research about speech therapy and singing lessons exercising the muscles used to keep the airway open.  The trouble is they don't know what exercises help.  Playing the didgeridoo is thought to help, but must be played 30 minutes daily.  The trouble with exercises to open the airway is that they may help while you're awake, but when you go to sleep you lose muscle tone.

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Permalink Reply by Mary Z on April 24, 2012 at 8:56am

Brian, also you need a sleep study if you think you have sleep apnea.  Until then you will not know.  See the doctor and get a study set up.  Good luck.

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