Hello
I am suffering from a very specific kind of sleep apnea that seems to be under-studied and not taken seriously by the medical establishment.
A couple years ago I was diagnosed with OSA. I was prescribed CPAP, and did several sleep studies, both at home and in-lab. All the studies I have done have shown I have primarily OSA, with a few Central events. The CPAP seems to be working-- my AHI with CPAP is less than 1. My sleep doctor believes that I am fine and my apnea is under control.
But here's the problem... I just can't fall alseep! I am having sleep-onset/ transitional apneas. Every time I nod off to sleep, my brain "forgets" to sleep, and I get jolted awake. This will happen throughout the night. Sometimes I will go the entire night without sleeping, even though I feel sleepy.
My general doctor prescribed meds for anxiety and sleep, and I have been taken them. They make me less anxious, but I still get woken up by the transitional apneas. My sleep doctor doesn't believe me that I even have a problem, since my AHI is so low, and all the data seems to indicate that my apnea is treated. She claims it's just anxiety, but even after taking medication for anxiety, and doing everything I can to try to relax, I'm still having these apneas.
I don't feel anxious when I go to bed. But after several hours of gettting woken up every time I start to nod off, I feel annoyed. My CPAP machine doesn't even register most of these events because they generally last less than 10 seconds. Usually the AHI on my CPAP still reads 0.0 after these episodes.
Right now it's 2:40am. I went to bed around 11:30pm. Ended up taking my sleeping meds, plus melatonin, plus several doses of nyquil, plus some benedryl, because I just can't fall alseep. Maybe I should just accept the fact that I will never sleep again because my doctors seem to think that there is no problem since my AHI is so low.
Lots of posts on here seem to claim that this issue is caused by anxiety, but I don't believe it. I'm not feeling anxious. I'm just feeling tired of not being able to sleep. The anxiety meds did not cure my central apneas. The only thing I am really REALLY feeling stressed about is feeling like my doctor is not taking my transitional apneas seriously.
