Recording Sleep Architecture at home?

I'm having severe problems with disrupted sleep and bad sleep architecture, along with all the normal symptoms that go along with sleep apnea(without actually having any apnea events). I don't know if my sleep problems are caused by any sleep disordered breathing or not, but I'm going to try an APAP to rule out UARS(have to work on the doctor...might end up doing it without her blessing). I had a sleep study a few weeks ago, but the results were unclear(AHI=5;RDI=13;very disrupted sleep architecture). The technician didn't see it as sleep apnea, and decided not to titrate me. My doctor on the other hand thinks it still might be some type of mild sleep apnea, and wants me to see an ENT and have another sleep study(this one took 3 months of waiting...I can't wait that long again!).

Whether or not my problems are caused by sleep disordered breathing, sleep architecture might be the most important variable for me. Is there any way to measure it at home? I know about the OpenEEG project, with hobbyists building very small(only a few channels) EEG machines, but I'm not sure if anyone's successfully used that or any other project to plot sleep architecture. Any suggestions?

(And yes, I'm willing to sleep with EEG probes and sticky conductive gel all over my head every night if that's what it takes. Worth it just to freak out the roommate )

Hello and welcome. Don't know about tracing sleep architecture at home. While identifying poor sleep architecture could have its benefits, it would still leave a big question - Why is it poor?

As far as the sleep study you had, one night is not necessarily the final answer. So many variables, as in how much you slept, how much time was on your back and/or in REM, were limb movements involved, etc.

For some people, limb movements accompany the apnea events as they struggle to breathe. For others who have Periodic Limb Movement Disorder, their movements can happen so fequently that they obscure OSA because one never gets asleep long enough to demonstrate a breathing problem.
Not saying that's you, just saying my OSA didn't show up on multiple sleep studies until my limb movements were controlled.

I hae a friend with all the symptoms of OSA but her results are similar to yours. Her insurance won't get her a machine so I'm watchiing for a good deal on one for her, as her sleep doc thinks she would benefit from it.

Good luck with your search.

You should ask for a copy of that PSG.

It should show diagnostic Sleep Architecture, you cannot obtain that from home unless you have an EEG laying around.

They probably didn't do the titration because your AHI didn't warrant it, AHI=5 is normal, RDI=13 is not all that bad either.

what did the PSG show as far as sleep architecture? If that was normal you may be barking up the wrong tree, only thing worse than going to a sleep doc is going to a ENT, they always find something wrong.

But you could have a blood disorder leaving you fatigued, you could have a tumor that also could leave you fatigued.

Get a copy of that PSG, look for any other parasomnias seen and ask your doctor about those. If he/she cannot explain them you found your problem and need to find another doctor. If he/she says there are none listed, hopefully the sleep lab was accredited where you can be comfortable with the result.

If it is a blood condition contributing to fatigue (reason for first PSG), then go see a Hematologist for a workup. May even want to see a Cardiologist to rule that out.

Wow, great replies.

I did have some minor leg movement during the study, but it always occurred at exactly the same time as the obstruction events, so I wasn't sure what was causing what(or if there was a third, hidden cause). The doctor said that since I've taken klonopin(which is sometimes used for restless leg syndrome) for sleep in the past with no improvement, she didn't think the leg movement was the root cause.

I have a copy of the sleep architecture graph(had to torture some people to get it), and I seem to get the proper amount of each phase of sleep(although no stage 4, but that isn't necessarily a problem). The problem was I awoke constantly, and the sleep was heavily fragmented.

It would be nice to monitor sleep architecture, as I seem to be trying many different solutions, many unrelated to sleep disordered breathing. I guess my end goal is good sleep architecture. Trying to implement any one fix may require monitoring other more specific parameters, however(such as all the standard sleep apnea statistics).

I finally had a voicemail conversation with the doctor today, and she gave me the go ahead to try APAP. So that's the next stop.