Just joined, hope I can get some insight to my problem.

I just found this forum and decided to join. I hope I can find some help for my chronic insomnia here. I'm sure my story is familiar, but thank you for giving me the opportunity to share.

I've had chronic insomnia for years. I have not been able to sleep more than 4 hours most nights. There is an occasional but rare night where I can get 5 or maybe even 6 hours, but the hours of sleep are not continuous. I've learned that I have maintenance insomnia. I don't have that much of a problem falling asleep, it's staying asleep. I sleep for 3-4 hours and then wake up wide awake and have trouble getting back to sleep for the rest of the night.

I have tried all of the sleep hygiene suggestions but they don't seem to help all that much. Last fall, my doctor finally recommended that I get a sleep test and in December I was diagnosed with moderate sleep apnea. I had done a sleep test 12 years ago and at that time had been diagnosed with mild sleep apnea. I did the CPAP back then but didn't take to it, so I never even started CPAP therapy. This time I did, since it was moderate and have been successfully using it since the beginning of the year. I am not overweight.

When my doctor suggested that I might have SA, I told him that I didn't think that I had the symptoms for it. I never woke up gasping for breath, and apart from feeling tired during the day from time to time, I never had the issue of wanting to nap or suddenly fall asleep, both of which are common symptoms of SA. His response (along with the sleep doctor), was that perhaps an apnea triggered a shot of adrenalin in my body and that's what made me feel wide awake when I woke up after 4 hours of sleep.

When I started CPAP, I really had some hope that it would help with my insomnia as well and for the first couple weeks, I was able to break my sleep patterns and actually fall back to sleep if I woke up in the middle of the night. Now I am finishing my fourth month and my old sleep patterns have returned. It's just so discouraging when you think you might have a handle on what is causing your insomnia, but I guess I was naive to think that CPAP would actually have any effect. I've since learned that the connections between SA and insomnia are tenuous. I don't hear a lot about insomnia issues on the CPAP/SA boards that I participate in.

I consider myself lucky that I was able to adapt to the CPAP quicker than I thought, less than a week. I definitely DON'T feel that my CPAP is contributing to my current bout of insomnia. However, considering how dangerous sleep apnea is to the body over time, I am, in some ways thankful that my insomnia prompted the sleep test, because if it hadn't, my SA would have gone untreated. I plan on using CPAP for as long as it takes, even if it lasts a lifetime.

My job is not all that strenuous. I'm an editor of a trade magazine and I don't consider my lifestyle to be all that stressful. I travel about every other month of so for business. I am single and in my mid-50s, was raised in a good home and don't have any PTSD symptoms. I've been characterized as a bit "too sensitive" by some of my friends and family and can get stressed out from time to time, but honestly, I don't really have all that much of it compared to the average person, I think.

But the insomnia is stressing me out, and somedays I feel like I'm at my wits end about this. Today is a particularly bad day. I had an active day yesterday, doing a lot of chores around the house and thought that I was fatigued enough at the end of the day so I could sleep well, but it was just another bad night of staying awake.

I have two prescriptions for insomnia- Temazapam (30 mg) and Sonata, which is in a dosage that my doctor prescribed as "short term," in that the effects only last a couple hours so I can take it in the middle of the night when needed. But frankly I use them sparingly as I don't want to get dependent on them.

I know this is a long screed and thank you for listening, if you got this far. I hope I can find some help on this board.