Just got my sleep test results

[itsjustme]

First off I'd like to say thanks to everybody here, I've been reading some posts here and I've already learned some things. I had an in lab study a couple weeks ago and just got some results. I only slept a little less than 3 hours which the nurse said was the bare minimum amount of time for them to find what they needed to know. In that time she said that I had 13 "events" and that during the night my o2 level dropped into the low 90's. Plus I never entered REM sleep. A normal night for me is to go to bed around 10:30-11 PM, I can be dead tired and can almost fall asleep, then I normally abruptly wake back up and can't get back to sleep for at least 2-3 hours and sometimes longer after that. Plus I am a very light sleeper, I have to have a fan going and even then the smallest noise will wake me up. It seems like I get my best sleep in the last couple hours before I get up, which is normally 7-7:30 am. They got me up at 5 am when I had the study. Next up is an appointment with the sleep specialist. My PCP also thinks I have hypertension, I just dropped off the 2 weeks worth of BP tests and haven't heard back from him yet. (But from the blood pressure readings I can tell you that he is right, average bp is around 140/97) My study was supposed to be a split study but since I slept so little they weren't able to do it. Does anyone have any ideas as to what I can expect next? This lack of sleep is no fun at all and it has been going on for several years now and has gotten worse.

[LSAT]

If what you say is right and you slept 3 hours with 13 events...and your O2 stayed above 90...you many not get a diagnosis of sleep apnea.

[Darth Lady]

Another possibility is UARS, Upper Airway Resistance Syndrome, which doesn't generate technical apneas or hypopneas, but which is a complete sleep wrecker with the same bad consequences as OSA proper. There are different protocols that can be used to test for it, so do follow up with your doc. Also, if, as you say, you are a very sensitive sleeper, you may be waking up every damn time your airway starts to close, whether from UARS or actual apnea. Before I started treatment (for actual OSA), I used to jerk awake from breathing difficulty a number of times before finally going to (bad) sleep. No fun!

[itsjustme]

I have an appointment with the specialist next month so hopefully he can tell me what's going on. My ENT has me on a couple different meds for congestion in both my sinuses and chest, so that could very well be the case. He is the one who arranged the sleep study to begin with. I'm still waiting to hear back from my PCP but I expect that he'll put me on something for the high blood pressure. The very least thing will wake me up, even with the fan going if the dog starts moving around in the hallway it gets me up.There is definitely something up so hopefully they can get it figured out. It's nice to know that there are other people out there who can relate to this, it makes me feel a little better talking to somebody about it. Those miserable nights sure make for miserable days too. I'll let y'all know what the sleep specialist tells me.

[itsjustme]

Sorry for talking so long to update, ended up having to have 2 studies because I couldn't get enough sleep for them to collect data. Sleep deprived me forgot to ask the tech to send me the full results, next time I talk to them I will get them and post the full results. But they did say that without a doubt it is OSA. I'm sure I will be asking a few questions from time to time but so far I have learned all I needed to know from the search function. I'm slowly getting used to the mask but Im not having major problems so far.