Apnea?

I used to think I lay awake but would notice I would lose track of time on my bedside clock. Turns out I was falling asleep many times an hour (seems like it was over 50 times per hour at my first sleep test) and waking back up less than a minute later.

In fact at my first sleep test (35 or more years ago) I was kind of angry with myself. I laid there with all the wires hooked up in a hospital bed (KU Med Center - was the only hospital with a sleep clinic at that time in the 4 state area - sleep clinics are everywhere now)  thinking I was never getting to sleep and the study was going to be a bust. They came into my room after it seemed like only an hour or so (I think it was several hours) and said I was so bad they were going to hook me up to a cpap and get me adjusted that night. Most people had to come back for a follow up visit for that to be done. By 5am I was at the hotel where my wife was staying (had went into the hospital the evening before about 9pm for the study). Wife said I was bouncing off the walls with energy. I had actually got a few hours of good sleep after they put me on the cpap and got the pressure adjusted and released me with a new prescription for a cpap machine. So I went and woke her up to go home (2.5 hour drive).

So it is very possible to think you are never getting any sleep nor falling asleep when you are falling asleep and waking back up within a minute or two. Seriously. Been there done that.

I would often have to take 15 minute naps in the tractor once or twice a day while sitting in the seat and letting the tractor idle. Sometimes the 10-15 minute nap turned into 30 minutes with a stiff neck.

I was about 30 at the time of my first sleep study, but in retrospect I am pretty sure I had sleep apnea since high school or maybe even before. But I specifically remember in high school having a clock radio by my bed and thinking I never got to sleep yet there were minutes I could not account for as the clock hand moved around the dial (one of the kinds that the hands glowed a little - this was way back when before digital clocks).