Sleep Study Woes and Questions

[Doce]

Hello everyone,

HISTORY
For those that are interested in some history of my journey.
viewtopic/t176376/Making-progress-or-sh ... stion.html

BACKGROUND
Last night I completed another in lab PSG sleep study. It was mine and my doctor's hope to record some solid data and get to the bottom of what is going on with me (primarily apnea, UARS, or PLMD). I have had 2 previous in lab studies before, so this was not a new rodeo for me. Unfortunately, my body decided to hate me and had a tremendously difficult time falling asleep. When at home, I am usually so tired, I pass out within minutes of getting in bed and sometimes don't even make it to the bed. To add to the ordeal, earlier in the evening around 8PM I had a headache and now it was getting worse (talk about a hell of time). Two hours after taking a 10 mg Ambien, I was still wide awake in the bed and felt like I was having anxiety. Part of me wonders if the medication attributed to the anxiety and difficulty falling asleep.

It was now midnight, and time was ticking because they wake patients up around 5AM or 530AM and I was going down the viscous cycle of worrying about not falling asleep and it made it even harder to fall asleep. I had to take a .5mg of Alprazolam, and eventually fell asleep within 15-20 minutes of taking it and I was on my right side (approximate sleep onset time of 12:25AM). I remember jolting awake at approximately 4AM with what felt like anxiety - I was still on my right side at that point and then I rolled over onto my back and had a fitful half-awake half-asleep session until 520AM where I eventually told the sleep tech to end the study because I felt wide awake.

We'll have to wait to see the finalized data says, but I'm pretty sure I only slept 4-4.5 hours, and I was predominantly on my side. I do not remember any dreaming. I do not remember any tossing or turning. I did wake up with a bit of a sore throat (probably from mouth breathing). I actually felt more rested then I usually do - probably because of the Alprazolam. In the rare instances that I take an Alprazolam on those especially bad nights, I tend to perceive more refreshing sleep the next day. When I arrived home from the study, I passed out for another 4 hours... Wish I could have slept those hours in the lab...

I am greatly looking forward to the graded results. I could be way off - but I am definitely intrigued what was found (minus the obvious hell of insomnia)



QUESTIONS

It's pretty common for people to have insomnia with in lab studies, but my concern is how much could it effect the data results?

How much sleep time is needed to make a diagnosis?

Do you foresee the doctor wanting to repeat the study or is 4-4.5 hours of sleep usually sufficient for data collection?

Sleep studies can show wildly different data results from one compared to another - if this sleep study does not show any apnea or significantly less apnea that my previously study, is that just a fluke or is it wise to continue to assume that I have apnea and it did not act up during this study?

Since we were trying to find out if I was having PLMD, did taking the Alprazolam pretty much void out the possibility of finding it as benzodiazepines are one form of treatment for PLMD?



I'm just feeling a little defeated and frustrated from the what felt like an unsuccessful, problematic sleep study that costed hundreds of dollars.... Fingers crossed it wasn't in vain.

[Pugsy]

2 to 3 hours of real sleep is probably enough to get what might be needed (assuming all sleep stages happened) for OSA diagnosis.
Don't know about the other issues as to what might be needed and UARS is a whole different animal.