Is Your Stubborn Insomnia Actually Sleep Apnea?
There’s perhaps no common human experience as frustrating as insomnia. You’ve woken up early, ran what felt like hundreds of errands, worked for eight hours, and come home craving sleep. And yet, sleep seems distant. Often, when you do fall asleep, you don’t stay that way. Maybe you’re closing your eyes only to wake up an hour later. So incredibly frustrating.
If you’ve tried all the common tips and tricks to cure your insomnia and yet are still struggling, there may be something else behind your sleep disturbances. Consider asking your doctor about sleep apnea, a night time breathing disorder that may be keeping you awake at night.
How Does Sleep Apnea Keep Me Awake?
Like sleep apnea, insomnia has nighttime and daytime symptoms. At night, you may find yourself having a hard time falling asleep or staying asleep. During the day, you’re likely tired and irritable.
Sleep apnea causes restlessness at night, snoring, and fatigue during the day. You may also have trouble concentrating. Sleep apnea occurs when your breathing stops because of poor brain signals, weakened throat muscles, or airway obstruction during the night. When these breathless moments occur, your brain panics and jolts you awake in order to start your breathing once again. Once you’ve woken, your brain often turns on like a light bulb, illuminating all those stressful things you had to accomplish the day before or the problematic things to come later. Sleep apnea is so common in insomniacs that one study found more than half of those suffering from insomnia also have sleep apnea.
If you’re having trouble sleeping and decide to see your primary health care provider, make sure that they’re ruling out sleep apnea. Sleep apnea treatment is painless and effective; if your sleeping difficulties are caused by this condition, you’ll have an easy way to fix the problem.
What if I’m Diagnosed with Sleep Apnea?
If your physician diagnoses you with sleep apnea, it’s important to start treatment. Untreated sleep apnea may lead to cardiovascular problems among other life-threatening complications. Most physicians will prescribe continuous positive airway pressure therapy via a CPAP machine to treat this disorder.
We’ve got plenty of quality CPAP systems available on our website along with a team of experienced respiratory health care professionals ready to answer any questions about the process. From the moment you’ve been diagnosed with sleep apnea till the moment you achieve comfortable, fulfilling sleep, we’ll be here.
Don’t let your insomnia stay stubbornly unsolved. Ask your doctor about sleep apnea today.
