I just finished an overnight sleep study

Nadi's picture
Posted July 18th, 2007 by Nadi
in

I just came home after a night at a sleep study center.  My doctor prescribed this for me to determine if I have sleep apnea.  It is a condition when airway gets blocked in the middle of sleep and one has to wake up to breath again.

I have had problems with sleeping almost all my life.  I snore in my sleep sometimes and I always feel tired when I wake up and during the day.  I had gone in to my doctor for a check up (which was normal) when I mentioned this to my doctor.  He told me I needed to go in for a sleep study.

I arrived at the center around 8PM.  My "sleep tech" explained the procedure to me and then hooked up a number of different sensors and monitors to me.  She said I could read or watch TV until 11PM but she requested I try to sleep after that. 

I was having a hard time sleeping with all the devices that were attached to me.  I am used to sleeping on my side but that was almost impossible to do.  I did my best trying to sleep anyways.  My sleep tech woke me up at 5:30AM and told me that I was done and needed to go home.  She assured me that I had slept even though I felt that I didn't get any sleep.  I didn't get an explanation why I had to leave so early in the morning.

I am home now and wondering what happens next.  If any of you has had experience with sleep apnea I would live to hear from you.  Please reply or IM me.  I will post updates as they become available.

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blackfeather's picture
On July 18th, 2007 blackfeather said:

I had a study a few months back.  I was also woken up ungodly early, and they didn't explain it to me, either.  My results were better, I did sleep that night.  I was given an option of when to arrive, if I had known how early they were to get me up, I would have chosen an earlier hour.

I had a follow-up study as the first study was to determine if I did in fact have sleep apnea.  Then I was fitted with a CPAP device, and I assume they used the data collected that night to determine what I needed (which device, and what air pressure to set it to).

My insurance made me take a screening before any of this, a survey, which had misleading results (false negative).  I'm glad I persisted, as otherwise I might still not have a CPAP.   Even the sleep specialist had to get approval for my sleep study from a bean-counter at the HMO (it was granted, but did delay a little my ability to schedule the study).