Insomnia Support Group

Insomnia is a symptom, rather than a disease, and is characterized by inadequate quantity or quality of sleep. People with insomnia complain of difficulty falling or staying asleep, which results in significant impairment of daytime functioning. Insomnia is categorized as transient (shorter than one week), short-term (one to three weeks) or chronic (longer than three...

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Fehrenbach16 03/28/2013

I am being tested next week for Sleep Apnea. My sleep problem is not during sleep, but falling asleep. Could you have sleep apnea if you are trying to fall asleep?

Maureen

deleted_user 03/29/2013

Hi Maureen. Generally, the vast majority of apneas occur when tissues in the throat collapse to block or partially block the airway. This may or may not be the case with you, but your sleep study should identify what's going on.

It is conceivable that you could experience apneas while falling asleep in stage 1, which is more of a drowsy state that is not considered true sleep but more of a transition to the deeper stages.

Keep us posted about your sleep study if you can, I'm sure many of us would like to hear about your experience.

lapopessa 03/30/2013

Hard to say. I have sleep apnea and have had a CPAP machine (mask you use to breath at night) since 2007. I didn't have insomnia until last summer. For me the two don't seem to be at all related. And yes, I have the falling asleep problem when I'm in insomnia mode.

Fehrenbach16 03/31/2013

Lapopessa
What do you do to help you fall asleep?
Sleepless in Seattle

lapopessa 03/31/2013

Give up and get up. Read or watch tv for a while until I'm feeling sleepy and then try again. Sometimes it works, sometimes not.

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