My oldest son had a sleep study done, but he was quite young and handicapped. They put him in a deep sleep to measure his sleep apnea. They warned me that when I went in to see him, all the machines might scare me so they explained what they all were and how and why they worked. When I walked in the room and saw everything, I was glad they explained things to me. I was not allowed to speak or touch him during the test. Even though he was in a deep sleep, subconsciously he would know someone was there and it would ruin the test.

I can't speak from personal experience though. What are they tested for?

I just had one done a couple months ago.Amazingly I did sleep with all the contraptions! LOL! Mine was in a very nice hotel.I did get a CPAP for at home....it's hard to get used to but I'm doing better with it.

I had one done a couple of years ago and the room was set up like a nice hotel with queen size bed, armoire with a TV in it a couple of nice end tables and a over stuffed chair. Made you feel like you were at home.

It didn't bother me that someone was watching. As a matter of fact he was watching two people that night. You can bring or take a sleeping pill or whatever you might have prescribed by your doctor to help you sleep.

I didn't have much trouble sleeping and was able to go back to sleep after they woke me and put me on a cpap machine. If you have any problems all you have to do is call his/her name and they will come right in.

You will need to take a shower as soon as you get home to get the gluey stuff out of your hair where they put the electrodes. You will also have that stuff on your arms, legs, back and stomach.

It is not a bad experience and they make you feel very comfortable so don't worry about going tonight.

Mine wasn't bad either. Let us know how you make out!

I have had it done 4 times now. I may need another one.
Just like going to a nice hotel room.
I didn't like all the wires and stuff, but I did fine.
They do watch you but it is by a small unobtrusive video camera.
I take any favorite pillows I need and even a fan.
They have a white noise machine but only one so I bring a fan.
The people at the sleep clinic are VERY accomidating.

Pooh Bear

Here is a link that might be useful: http://www.sleepapnea.org/

I had mine done at a hospital and they had no t.v. radio and the room had black out drapes, lol. I couldn't fall asleep and they kept coming in and telling me to try and fall asleep. It wasn't unpleasant but a little messy. I managed to sleep for two hours. I had mild sleep disorder and no further treatment.

I'm having one done on the 21st in my own home. No one will watch. My doctor is one of the few that do this study in France and is one of the VERY few that does it from your own bed. He'll just hook me up in his office in the evening and I just turn it on when I go to bed. Everything gets recorded and then I bring it back in the morning to have it analyzed. Should be interesting!!
Good luck with yours!
Karen

I have sleep apnea. My Doctor wants to do a sleep test on me. My question is...What good does the test do? Is there really a cure?

I'm not insurable because of Diabetes and I'm not rich.

Gayle

Gayle, sleep apnea is life threatening. It's when you stop breathing while you are sleeping. Bad enough you end up with sleep deprivation, but if you don't start breathing on your own quickly enough - well, you die.

If you truly do have sleep apnea, or even if it's just an upper airway obstruction (like I have), the doctor will prescribe a CPAP machine. You use it at night while you're sleeping (and you should also use it whenever you take a nap), and it gently forces air into your nostrils. There are several different manufacturers of the machines, and each manufacturer makes several models. Then, there are different models/styles of masks to wear.

My hubs and I both have had a sleep study done and both of us use a CPAP. Hubs has sleep apnea, I "just" have an upper airway obstruction. I don't get enough oxygen when I sleep and don't get into REM sleep (unless I use the CPAP). As my doctor said, I'm "seriously sleep deprived!"

We do have insurance, which paid for our sleep studies. But, my upper airway obstruction didn't meet the criteria for Blue Cross to pay for my CPAP. The insurance did pay for my hubs' CPAP. Because the insurance wouldn't cover mine and I had to pay cash for it, the place where we got them charged me $700. They billed our insurance close to $3,000 for the exact same machine and mask for my husband.

A close friend is a "Sleep" technician. He stumbled upon the career a long while ago, and is really involved now. He's studying for boards in March, I believe, and will be licensed soon after. I won't be able to get much info before you go, but if you have questions about anything - results, coping with diagnosis, etc., email me and I'll try to get answers.

YES, it is CRITICAL to follow up on Apnea. It is very life threatening - for you, and others around you, especialy if you drive, or operate equipment. If you don't have insurance, try some community health fairs or something like that. They may have info so you can get free care, or some type of assistance. It is a very serious condition - just as much as diabetes.

Gayle - I just had to post - there are several studies that show a link between sleep apnea and poor glycemic control in diabetics. Apnea IS treatable, with a machine that helps you breathe at night and keeps your oxygen levels up. The studies have shown that when your apnea is treated, your sugars are under much better control (and your risk of heart disease and stroke go down, and people have been shown to lose weight!)

There are also durable medical supply companies that sell gently used CPAP machines (the machine that helps you breathe at night) if you don't have insurance. A lot of sleep centers have financial assistance programs, and I know of 2 research centers in my area that have paid for a sleep study as part of a clinical study in the past - it's worth looking into in your area (Radiant Research is a good and reputable company to start with).

I have to tell you all, the patients that we've sent for studies and have gotten treatment have said it's literally life-changing. They say they didn't know how badly they felt and how badly it affected every part of their lives until they felt better and saw and felt what they were missing.

And to Sephia, my experience was similar to a lot of the others, it was like a very comfortable hotel room, and though you're hooked up to a lot of wires, otherwise they pretty much leave you alone. I was able to sleep, the only thing I didn't like was that they woke me up much earlier than I would have preferred :-P

april

My sleep doctor is a neurosurgen. He explained it to me that
when you stop breathing your heart also stops. Your pulse-ox
level starts going down. Hopefully you will start breathing
again. But when you do and your heart starts beating again
your blood pressure spikes real bad. It can cause a stroke.
I have severe obstructive sleep apnea. This means my airway
is too small to take in enough air when I breath at night.
Sleeping in a more upright position helps greatly. I slept
in a recliner for several years before getting an adjustable bed.
I had such a bad time getting use to my mask that I finally
had to have surgery to open my airway in the back of my throat.
They shortened the back of my upper pallet and removed my uvola.
This allowed me to use a lower pressure on my CPAP machine
which made it much easier to use my mask. Now I can't sleep
without it. Even for a short nap. My wife uses one too.
The reason for the test is 1.) determining if you have
sleep apnea, and 2.) finding what settings to use for the CPAP machine.
It's hard to get used to using it, but once you do,
you will never want to be without it again.

Pooh Bear

I had it done a few years ago, and it was not a bad experience. It takes them time to hook you up, then you relax and go to bed. I found out that I did have disrupted sleep, but that I did not have sleep apnea. I was supposed to go for more testing, but the funding for that clinic was pulled, and I didn't bother to transfer my info to the new one. My sleeping is much better now, anyway.

I had one years ago and was a little apprehensive at first. I read till I was sleepy then they gave me a mild sleeping pill. I didn't remember anything till the next morning. The room and bed were very nice like a hotel.

I was diagnosed with sleep apnea mainly because I snore so loud but I don't stop breathing. I am on a CPAP machine which helps. I wish I had never been diagnosed because that is an automatic decline as a pre-existing condition when you are trying to get private insurance.
Clare

Well, I had my sleep study Friday night. It took about 45 minutes to hook up all of the electrodes. I went to bed about 10:30 pm. I had trouble sleeping - and not for the reason that I had the sleep study in the first place. At home I have a very comfortable queen size bed, and I move around quite a bit (I'm single). At the sleep center, I was in a double bed, which wasn't very comfortable. I did bring along my own pillow. On one side of the double bed was all of the electrodes and equipment so I couldn't fully move around like I like to. I felt like I was sleeping in a twin size bed. And then a couple of the electrodes came off so the sleep tech had to come in and reattach them. That didn't matter as I was awake anyway. I felt confined and because I move around alot, I kept getting the wires / cords all tangled up. I didn't care that I was being watched - I wasn't self concious about that. I could hardly wait until it was time to get up so I could go home and climb into my comfortable bed with my 2 cats. I'm supposed to speak with the nurse practitioner on Monday so I'll find out then what the next step is.