You've been snoring, waking up your spouse or partner for ages. You wake up and feel groggy and tired all day long. You have sleep apnea or some kind of sleep issue and you go to the doctor who orders you a sleep study. What can you expect?
- A sleep study is done either in a hospital or stand alone sleep center by trained professionals.
- You will spend an entire night at the sleep study.
- The study is completely painless!
- You will have wires hooked up all over your scalp attached by goop. Wired attached to your sides, legs and arms as well as face. A belt around your waist.
- You will be in a private room all night and it will be completely dark and quiet.
- There will be a camera recording you all night long. You won't see the camera during the night but it's watching you for the study so act normal.
I just had my 5th sleep study. I use a CPap machine. My evening began without the machine until they record enough to put you on the CPap get you going. I tried on two masks and a chin strap during the night. The first mask didn't do the job. The tech added the chin strap to see if my mouth would stay closed. That didn't work. Next she brought in a mask that covered both nose and mouth and this seemed to fix my issues. It's so important to do this study so all the data can be gathered while you sleep and while they can see what is happening. I am now waiting for my follow up so I can finally get my new, updated CPap machine with correct settings. My last machine has over 55,000 hours on it and just stopped working. I think it is 18 years old?
A technician is only a voice away all night long to help you. I found my experience to be the best yet as is was at a private center instead of the hospital.
I'm the morning I was able to shower there and get all the goop out of my hair that held the wires. *Yes, it can be difficult to sleep all wired up but you are only giving up one night to find out exactly what is wrong with you!* I think that's a pretty good trade off.
Don't hesitate if you are told you too need a sleep test, there really isn't much to it. Contact me in replies if I can answer any questions I didn't cover.