Sleep Disorders

[livingwith]

I am asking for help for my wife of 37 years. For the past 26 years it may take her 2 hours to fall to sleep. Once asleep, she wakes up every 1/2 hour. She saids she never remembers dreaming. She does not snore, smokes, or drinks, or have high blood pressure but may have some restless leg sindrome. She goes to bed and gets up about the same time every night. She may go 2 - 3 nights without sleeping at all. She has difficulty staying awake when driving. When she takes a nap, 1-2 hours, during th...Read the full article

[Circadiabsurdium]

Hi, Jim

It's weird that she can only sleep a half hour at a time at night, but can take a 1-2 hour nap during the day. Does she wake up every half hour when she sleeps during the day, or only when she tries to sleep at night? It doesn't seem to fit in 100% with any of the major sleep disorders . . . it sounds like she either has something extremely rare, or else has more than one thing going on at the same time. It's hard to say without more info, especially since most (all?) of us here are non-doctors. I can understand the reluctance to seeing a doctor, because they never seem to take sleep problems very seriously, and sleep studies can be expensive even with health insurance - but getting to a REAL sleep doctor might be the fastest way to get a real diagnosis, so I hope she changes her mind on that...