Ask a sleep technician Q/A

Hey guys,
I'm a sleep technician from Boston. If you have any questions I maybe able to help you out

Welcome toaste help is always welcome. We don’t generally ask questions of a specific person.

There are hundreds of questions already asked and more will be asked every day .... just pick a thread and join in .

And you wouldn't be the first tech here... This forum's been around a long time, as have some of the 'experts', and they're beyond knowledgable about machines, diagnoses, conditions, meds, stats, PSG's, just a vast amount of stuff, but I'm sure new voices are always welcome.

Welcome to this fantastic board, great people here.

toaste,

During the second night of my sleep study when you're wearing the mask and the tech is adjusting pressures all night (awaking you several times) it would seem that there wouldn't be enough time at any pressure to see if it knocks you out of rem sleep.

In my case, the pressures were so high that although my AHI was very low, I wasn't getting any rest. I was set for a bipap pressure of 10 and 16 with a biflex of 3. I find that I get a much better night's sleep with 6 and 11 with biflex of 3....even though I then get a low AHI (between 1.5 and 2.5) but with 4 or fewer events within an hour.

So my question is do sleep studies somehow miss the fact that high bipap pressures keep people from getting into REM sleep?

Hey toaste,
How can I as a patient get access to my entire night of data from a sleep study or titration? I want all the data recorded from the sleep study so I can take it to any doctor? Would this data be given out with a piece of software called a reader or can it be put in Pdf form and run for hundreds of pages at 30sec per page and then stored in a computer file format? Does the doctor ever look at the detailed data of the study or does he look at the summary written by the technician. How much of the data is analyzed and scored by software? When does the technician, override the computer's analysis? When does the doctor look at the detailed data of the study? I will assume the doctor only looks at the summary of the study that the technician writes. The technician uses software to analyze the data so they can quickly write a summary.

If you answer this you could just post it as a new post with a link to it here on this post.

Hey toaste:

Tell us your worst horror story from your side of the window... we get a lot of people in here complaining about the people in their sleep studies - I'd like to hear about belligerent jerk patients so we know what you guys have to deal with... and just for gossip.

Hey toaste Welcome
My question is I use an ultra mirage FF mask and an S9 vpap machine with H51 humidifier. I use a Climaline hose humidifier setting on 4 . What would cause a popping noise when I inhale. I have had the machine 10 months I allow the hose to drip every morn . Could it be a madk issue? Its making me crazy
I usr epr of 6
Thanks

What is a madk?

Sclark08 wrote:Hey toaste Welcome
My question is I use an ultra mirage FF mask and an S9 vpap machine with H51 humidifier. I use a Climaline hose humidifier setting on 4 . What would cause a popping noise when I inhale. I have had the machine 10 months I allow the hose to drip every morn . Could it be a madk issue? Its making me crazy
I usr epr of 6
Thanks

per another thread I was reading today, check the connections on the hose, another poster was experiencing a similar issue when he had the EPR turned on on his CPAP, he ended up discovering one end of the hose wasnt quite as tight as it needed to be and when he "snapped" it in that last little bit the clicking/popping stopped.

chunkyfrog wrote:What is a madk?

prolly something in dumbshitease.... but I've got too many brain cells that still work for me to be able to understand her language.

palerider wrote:

chunkyfrog wrote:What is a madk?

prolly something in dumbshitease.... but I've got too many brain cells that still work for me to be able to understand her language.

s is next to d on the keyboard, prob trying to say mask and fatfingered it

Thanks johnnyb01!

Isnt it amazing some people spell EVERYTHING CORRECTLY! Come on folks

toaste,

Thanks for joining the forum and offering your assistance.

As one who finally had a full scale sleep study the other night after having a home study test 3 years ago, there has got to be a better way. Asking someone to fall asleep with a "million" wires on their body is absolutely insane. I only slept 2.5 hours which was due to taking an ambien CR. Otherwise, I wouldn't have slept at all and I am someone who normally has no problems falling asleep.

Anyway, are there any changes on the horizon that you are aware of that would involve alot less wires but still enable sleep professionals to get the necessary data from a full scale study? Just wondering after my experience in which I wanted to tear off the wires yesterday, particularly, the ones attacked to my face.

And just so you know, I had a great tech and have nothing but praise for her. It is the system that stinks to high heaven in my opinion.