Does CPAP help insomnia?

I'm new to the board and did a search, but didn't really find an answer to my question, so I'm going to post this here in case anyone has info about what I'm experiencing.

I've been dealing with chronic sleep onset insomnia for the past 6 months. It came out of nowhere. I didn't have any life changing event or anything else I can think of that triggered it. I just slept terrible one Saturday night into Sunday back in August and the insomnia has stayed around. I have trouble sleeping nearly every night. Sometimes I will go a stretch where I sleep fine and then I will go a stretch where it takes me hours to fall asleep if I sleep at all. My insomnia is odd in that, I just cannot fall asleep initially. If I fall asleep and wake up in the middle of the night, I have no problem getting back to sleep. I just cannot initiate sleep for hours. I exercise, cutout caffeine and do all of the other CBT things I have read on and nothing helps.

I visited my primary doctor back in September and she suggested a sleep study, but I turned it down because I didn't want the expense. She gave me Restoril (temazepam) which worked for a few nights, but most of the time it does nothing. I just dealt with the fact that sometimes I slept and sometimes I didn't. I followed up with my doctor again in February and she again suggested a sleep study. I accepted the offer because I'm now to the point that I need to figure out what is going on. She also gave me Ambien to use in the meantime because my study is not schedule until April 4th. I have yet to take the Ambien yet, so I'm not sure if that will work or not.

I do have symptoms of sleep apnea - high blood pressure and daytime sleepiness (that could be because I sleep so terribly.) So, I wouldn't doubt if I have sleep apnea and if I do, I will try my hardest to use the mask and machine. I do have anxiety when I go to bed because I attribute that to the fact that I sleep so terrible.

My question is, has anyone had a similar experience to mine that a CPAP machine has helped? You have trouble falling asleep, but after using a CPAP you fall asleep better? Like I said, I would have no problem trying to use a CPAP machine, I just don't know if this is going to fix my problem.

Thanks for the help!

Treating Sleep Apnea will help if that's the cause of your insomnia.

I would see a sleep doctor and preferably one who's a neurologist. Sleep Apnea is the most common sleep disorder, but there are a number of other ones that you also should be tested for.

Sorry to bring the tough love, but the sleep study sounds like your best shot.
I wager you ARE "worth it"", even though the expense makes you unhappy.
Perhaps you could get a home sleep study--way more affordable, and it might give some clues.

I had sleep onset problems leading up to my OSA diagnosis. It all happened pretty fast, I went from sleeping very well to sleeping pretty badly within the space of about 6 months. I went through menopause, and also had my gallbladder removed in the same time frame, not sure how that relates, but these two events seemed to coincide with insomnia in my case.

CPAP has helped.

It didn't happen overnight, but now, after almost a year of being on CPAP every night, I'm falling asleep within 5 to 10 minutes or so of turning the light off, just like I did before OSA.

I read in bed, mask up, turn the light off, and drift into a very lovely state of calm sleep. How different from 18 months ago!

Sleep has become "safe" again for my brain, not fraught with danger.

Without a doubt insomnia was one of my symptoms of OSA (I didn't even realize it at the time), and in my case, CPAP has really helped to resolve it.

I hope you will get to the bottom of this, insomnia is horrible, very bleak and quite soul destroying in a way, and plays havoc with emotions and health.We always read about folks who sleep too much who have OSA, but there are many of us who have insomnia and are hyper alert from it as well.

I had insomnia, anxiety, depression and a whole bunch of other things. These symptoms are mostly gone now that I am getting proper cpap therapy. I suffered for 4 years and 3 years under doctor supervision and did not improve. Found that my cpap pressures were not adequate when I came to this forum.

I hope you can get things figured out. I know what it's like to be extremely exhausted day after day and still not able to get to sleep while laying in bed for hours. I think what happens is that your body gets a boost of adrenaline from being overtired and it lasts for several hours, thus you can't get to sleep. I could barely stay awake during the afternoon and early evening, but than the boost came around 7-9pm. When that happened I wasn't able to sleep until midnight at the earliest no matter how exhausted. Then the same thing would repeat each night. Hard to break the cycle until you start getting better quality sleep through the night. That's my theory.

mwarn wrote:I visited my primary doctor back in September and she suggested a sleep study, but I turned it down because I didn't want the expense.... My question is, has anyone had a similar experience to mine that a CPAP machine has helped? You have trouble falling asleep, but after using a CPAP you fall asleep better? Like I said, I would have no problem trying to use a CPAP machine, I just don't know if this is going to fix my problem.

Thanks for the help!

you can always "go rogue" and buy a used machine, and give it a try, with help from folks here on the board.

if it helps, great.

if not, turn around and sell it for little if any expense.

I have found that with cpap, I usually fall asleep within 5 minutes or so. Rarely more than 10 minutes. Prior to cpap, I would lay awake for a good hour. In hotel rooms, I would watch the clock, usually remembering at least two looks per hour and at least one bathroom trip per hour. Now, a hotel night is awesome. I usually sleep straight through. Maybe one bathroom trip.

In my case, I do believe that insomnia and at least part of my being a severe night owl is due to sleep apnea. In other words, one coping mechanism of sleep apnea is to avoid sleep. If your brain knows you will suffer during sleep, why do too much of it? I never thought of this before cpap, but I realized it later when I had a bad cold. I always sleep poorly with a bad cold, so I tend to wait as long as possible until I am really tired before I try to sleep.

I don't know if I had sleep apnea back in my 20s when I became a night owl, but it is possible that I was avoiding sleep to avoid sleep apnea. Now, even with cpap, I am still a severe night owl. I don't know how many years it took to truly convert me, but it is my normal now, and I am peace with that. I do mornings when I have to, and I tolerate them much better with cpap than I ever did before cpap.

I can tell you from personal experience that are asleep brain knows more than we think it knows. My first night of sleep at home after my sleep study, I had a dream that I had to wait 6 months to get a cpap machine, and I wanted it NOW. So, even asleep, my brain knew recognized how bad my normal sleep was after that really good night with a cpap. Later, I after I got my cpap, I took off the mask one night, and I had a dream that I was in a office building looking for a power outlet so that I could plug in my cpap. Again, even asleep, my brain knew I was suffering and wanted me to use the cpap.

Now, sleep apnea isn't the only cause for sleep apnea, so it may not be a magic cure for you. But it is well worth the try. As palerider said, you can buy a cpap on craigslist or via few websites or a user here named greyghost. Give it a try and see if it helps. Just make sure you get one with full data. We can help you pick one out. Then you can use free software to see what is going on and if you need to make adjustments. I have seen Resmed S9 autosets for $200-300 on craigslist. The mask is more personal, so you would probably want to buy on new.