After an overnight sleep study my primary care doctor has left me a message indicating she thinks I have insomnia and wants me to make an appointment with the sleep center for behavioral therapy. (I currently already practice good sleep hygiene and do many of the things suggested on your website and by a psychologist I have seen who does behavioral therapy. I've also tried taking prescription benzodiazepines on the nights I have trouble falling asleep, but these leave me feeling hung over and even more exhausted the next day. I do not feel it is as clear-cut as insomnia, but would like to ask your opinion. I haven't seen the polysomnogram report, so I don't know anything it says.
The night of the study it did take me approximately 45 minutes to fall asleep, and from what I remember I woke up about 2 or 3 times but was only awake for a minute or two.
At home I go back and forth between taking 15 minutes to an hour to fall asleep (occasionally longer), and I wake up often, sometimes 15 or 20 times, but usually only very briefly. However some nights I don't remember waking up at all. No matter what, whether I appear to have slept 9 hours or 3 hours I am excessively tired all day.
I am prescribed Adderall to help with the daytime sleepiness. I recently experimented by not taking any medication during the day. Without the aid of a stimulant I can stay awake approximately 4 hours before the overpowering urge to nap strikes. If I can fight this urge off I do, but I can never go any longer than 7 hours before I really do need to lie down and nap.
With Adderall I can go through a day without a nap, but I still feel excessively tired.
But, as I said, it's not every night that I have trouble sleeping, and more often than not it occurs just before or during my menstrual cycle and seems hormonally related. The excessive daytime sleepiness however is every day without fail. Does this sound like a case of insomnia?