sleep- chicken or egg?

well, my head is a little sore from the giant doh! headslap i had to give myself when i realized that hubby's problems are probably mostly due to his terrible snoring and apnea. i have nagged him forever to see a doctor about this. he doesn't get the daytime sleepiness that a lot of people get, so he has always insisted that he is fine. but lately he has gotten increasing physical symptoms- aches and pains and headaches, in addition to his increasing depression.
i spent all day yesterday trying to find something to help him right away. i was going to drag him in to see my doc, but she is out of town. i talked to my daughter's neurologist and psychiatrist. the neurologist concurred that apnea could absolutely be the root cause, and recommended a couple of docs that could do a sleep study. but that will still take a week or so.
my daughter's shrink, who is fabulous (a phd nurse) is the kind of person who would not let rules stand in the way of helping someone. there wasn't anything that she could do to get him help immediately either. but she did assure me that it would be ok for him to try taking some trazadone (which is working miracles for me right now) until he could get in to see someone. it is sometimes used even with apnea, when stopping the snoring does not relieve all the symptoms.
i also went out and bought him a contour foam pillow, and a couple of other "snorer's" pillows, as well as a mattress topper that i folded to raise the head of the bed a little.
as i write this, he is sleeping like a baby. i lay there last night just listening to him breathe, my heart going pitter patter. he snored a little, but did not struggle to breathe.
ok, he just got up and grumped at me that he feels woozy from the trazadone. i did encourage him to take a big dose, just to see what he needed. ok, fine. we will dial it down tonight. it will probably take a few days for him to feel any better.

so, what are your experieinces with sleep problems and mental illness? they tend to go together for everyone i know. but is it a chicken or is it the egg?

I'm convinced, for example, that the superlong postpartum depression I had was almost entirely because my second son didn't sleep through the night until he was three.

I really hope things improve for you! I mostly lurk in this group, but I've been following your story and wish you the best...

i had some blues with each of my kids, but the worse sleepers where the worst.
my older son also has a not 24 body clock and flunked out of school because he could not stay on a daytime schedule. he was nearly psychotic for a while.
my experience with docs, shrinks, counselors, etc, is that they do not take it seriously. they view it more as a symptom than a cause. it should at least be looked at as a possible part of treatment.
why don't they do a sleep study before prescribing powerful medications for people?

The doctor prescribed metatonin, which worked wonders.

Take it one hour before normal bedtime otherwise it doesn't work right. It works with the body's normal production of melatonin.

i am also finding out that my physical problems, pains and a lot of stuff, are also caused by bad sleep. i have been going to doctors all my life with stuff they could not explain. i finally have a dx of fibromyalgia. i am taking trazadone, but i don't know if it is the best thing to take, or what. the freaky thing is that this might be from a head injury that i got as a kid. i have been had sleep trouble, and been a little emotional all my life. other little odd things to that i am going- was this part of it? or that? doh!
i am going to make an appointment to see a neurologist.