has anyone ever done a sleep study?

I'm close to losing my mind.

I cannot sleep.

I've never been a great sleeper but over the last year and half something hasn't been right. I have been falling asleep later and later - usually around 3 or 4 am. Some nights I sleep for 5 or 6 hours...many other nights, I wake up really frequently. It's anxiety related. I've been in therapy to deal with that. Doesn't help the sleep.

Tylenol PM, benadryl, nyquil, OTC sleep meds...you name it, they don't put me to sleep.

A year ago, my doc said I have insomnia and gave me Ambien. I hate it. A lot. I feel like I'm not really sleeping when I take it and then it just stopped working for me anyway.

I haven't tried melatonin because I figured if freaking ambien's not working, what the hell is going to knock me out?

Last night I may have gotten 3 hours of sleep. The last time I got a full 7 hours of uninterrupted sleep was August. Before that it was May. I try to physically exhaust myself so I'll sleep but that doesn't work. I'm finding that I can only fall sleep naturally when I'm in a car as a passenger (seriously, like a baby; I actually begged someone to drive around the other day so I could take a nap).

I can't do this anymore. It's either insomnia or delayed sleep phase syndrome (DSPS). When I wake up from what little sleep I get, I can barely function. My head is in a fog. It takes me at least an hour for me to be functional, whether I drink coffee or not.

So I typed all that out and I'm sure no one cares but if you've done a sleep study or know someone who has, can you tell me if they were able to 'cure' their sleep issues? Does anyone here have DSPS? How do you cope?

Iamsofakingtired

thanks for reading/any feedback/advice

Re: has anyone ever done a sleep study?

I've done a few sleep studies, but that was because I knew I had sleep apnea. They specialize in apnea, but I'm not sure if they address stress/mental causes of sleep deprivation. It's probably worth a shot to at least talk to a sleep study specialist to get their input.

Re: has anyone ever done a sleep study?

My dh had one recently, theres a thread on here about it, rod knows a lot about this stuff

Dh was diagnosed with apnea and needs to get a dental appliance. He hated doing the study because he was attached to all the wires and nearly ripped it off in the middle of the night and ran home.

Hope you get to the bottom of this, im sure its driving you crazy!!

Re: has anyone ever done a sleep study?

Had it done. It wasn't so bad. The thing I didn't like was the gel and trying to get that out of my hair

Re: has anyone ever done a sleep study?

mushesgirl, thank you - i should've done a search

Re: has anyone ever done a sleep study?

I just wanted to say that my DH really likes melatonin. He has issues falling asleep and this helps him, he hated ambien and all those others remedies as well. Worth a shot, hope you find relief soon

Re: has anyone ever done a sleep study?

I had one done in August. My neurologist swore I had sleep apnea because I kept complaining that I was always tired. Well....I don't. I am just tired because I have two kids, a job, and tons of medical issues.

It wasn't a bad experience. I was able to sleep even with all that stuff attached to me.

Re: has anyone ever done a sleep study?

Re: has anyone ever done a sleep study?

When I went, they hook up about 30 wires to your head, face, chest, and leg. You get a chest strap, too. Then, they do some equipment checking (you have to blink your eyes, clench your teeth, count to 10, etc, etc). Then you just go to sleep. When they are done, they wake you up (around 5am where I went) and you go home. A few days later, you go back in and the doctor goes over the numbers that the test showed.

It sounds worse than it is. I was surprisingly able to fall asleep fairly easily, even with all the wires.

If it's sleep apnea, you'll need to do a follow-up sleep study with a CPAP machine as well, and possibly one with an oral appliance.

You don't need to snore for it to be apnea. That's just the most common symptom, but with 10 million+ people with sleep apnea, there are going to be lots of exceptions to every rule....

Re: has anyone ever done a sleep study?

Thanks all....really informative, I appreciate it.

Goldenrod, don't you have to actually be able to fall asleep to have sleep apnea? I know that excessive daytime sleepiness is an indicator of apnea but I'd think I'm so tired from sleeping on average 3/4 hours a night.

Re: has anyone ever done a sleep study?

Hi there, I know you posted a while ago, but wanted to share a little of our experience.
My husband has sleep issues galore, and the only place equipped or interested in getting to the bottom of it all was the Winthrop Sleep Center. The director is an out-of-the-box thinker. We found that most other sleep study centers on LI are run by ENT's...not helpful for a majority of patients.
Good luck!