Sleep Apnea and Insomnia

Sleep apnea and insomnia are both sleep disorders, though both sleep apnea and insomnia are unrelated. The end product of sleep apnea and insomnia is one of poor sleep quality and daytime tiredness. Sleep apnea and insomnia can occur simultaneously though they would not be causally linked.

It is a relatively common belief that sleep apnea leads to insomnia.

In fact, the lack of sleep in sleep apnea is often unnoticed and is a side effect of sleep apnea. Sleep apnea is a sleep disorder where a sleeping individual interrupts the normal breathing cycle by holding their breath waking the individual.

This is why sleep apnea and insomnia have been linked causally.

There are two types of sleep apnea:  obstructive and central.

Obstructive Apnea:  Some location in the respiratory tree is blocked either by a substance or by loss of muscle tone causing partial collapse of that area.  This makes breathing difficult and one would wake though wouldn’t necessarily remember it.

Central Apnea:    This results when the area of the brain controlling breathing stops sending signals to breath.  Here, the person must wake up to restart breathing.

Sleep Apnea and Insomnia

Insomnia is a sleep disorder resulting in a person’s inability to fall asleep or that they cannot stay asleep for a decent length of time.  These people experience little or no stage 4 or REM sleep.  This definition clearly indicates no link between sleep apnea and insomnia.

Sleep is normally regulated in a person’s brainstem, specifically the reticular activating system (RAS), which is located just below their brains.  Signaling from this area induces or eliminates sleep in a circadian rhythm.  Melatonin is a neurotransmitter involved in maintaining circadian rhythms as well as instigating activity in the RAS.  Fundamentally, insomnia results from the disruption of circadian rhythms or melatonin activity.  People suffering from insomnia usually complain that they can’t close their eyes or turn off their minds long enough to get some rest.

It is easy to see how sleep apnea and insomnia would be linked.  However, as was shown, the tiredness and wakefulness of sleep apnea are a side effect of breathing cessation while those of insomnia are of rhythm disruptions.  Therefore sleep apnea and insomnia are definitely two sleeping disorders.