1 or 2 sleep studies

[Jasonlboyd]

Is it common to have 2 sleep studies? My mom in law had her sleep study about a week before mine, then she had to go back for a second study. She is supposed to get her machine tomorrow. I've had my machine for about 3 weeks now, got it after about 5 days. They woke me up around 12:30-1 in the morning to put the mask on me. Does it just depend on the company doing the study?

[chunkyfrog]

You had a split study. Many of us have had two. One to diagnose, the second to titrate.
Sometimes it's possible to get all the data they need in one night--sometimes not.

[JDS74]

It is common to have a sleep study one night and a second night titration study where they find out what pressure or pressures the patient needs.

Some sleep centers do this in one night, 4 hours of sleep measurements followed by 4 hours of titration. This is called a split study.

If you fall asleep easily (most untreated apnea patients do this easily), then there is enough time during a split study.

[Nozzelnut]

Along the same lines; Are they doing more of the home titrating for pressures with auto machines instead of the second study?

[hueyville]

I just had 4 studies in 3 months. But my complex apnea is messed up. Add in the 3 from other docs it was 7 studies to get me totally dialed in before the doctor and I were happy.

[joshuamommie]

my dr requested a split study because we were both sure i had sleep apnea just had to prove it in a study, between family history and the symptoms i was having it was obvious.... my mom had 2 because they weren't sure with her....

[SleepyToo2]

Split studies often indicate that you have severe apnea - unless planned because of cost, etc. A split study may not allow enough time for you to go through the sleep phases/cycles that they seem to like you to go through. If that happens, you may need a second study.

[jbloodwo]

I guess I actually did have 2 studies. One of those take home and ware it on your head thins and the titratation study at the sleep center.

[mgaggie]

I had three because I didn't go into REM sleep on my second one

[zoocrewphoto]

When I was scheduled for my sleep study, I was told that I might or might not have a split study. It would depend on several things. How early I fell asleep, how severe my sleep apnea might be, and how early in the night that is determined.

For example, with somebody who has mild sleep apnea, they will probably do the diagnosis phase all night to get a full idea of how bad it is in each body position, and during the sleep cycles. For somebody like me, who has severe sleep apnea, does it really matter if my ahi is 79 or 99? Clearly, the treatment is going to be pap treatment. In my study, they woke me after 2 1/2 hours. I had already provided an ahi of 79, slightly higher on my back. I never reached REM sleep, so it could be even higher over the whole course of the night. But I was already clearly severe. They still had 6 hours left of the night, so they had a good amount of time to do the titration phase. I slept 5 1/2 hours straight and then fidgeted for the last half hour. I got a very accurate titration. They weren't quite sure how high to prevent apneas while on my back, so they left the high end of my auto range a little higher than what they tried as I only slept on my back twice while using the cpap. But that worked well for me. They recommended 11-17, and I stay with 11-13 most of the night, maybe a few spikes up to 15, and some nights a couple spikes to almost 17. I have only hit 17 once.

[Pugsy]

A split study was ordered for me but the tech explained that there is certain protocol that must be met before they stop the diagnostic study and put the mask on AND there must be enough time left available once protocol is met to do the titration part.
I didn't meet criteria because I had horrible sleep latency. It took a long time for me to get to sleep and this was with an Ambien CR.
Then I kept waking up so even more non sleep time. By the time I finally met criteria there simply wasn't enough time left to do the titration.
Not all people with sleep apnea go immediately to sleep and start having apnea events to meet criteria straight away.
When he woke me up to go home...I thought "crap, I don't have OSA to explain my lousy sleep" but he just winked and told me "you will be back for another study". Part of their criteria was events per hour...I didn't meet it until too late in the night due to poor sleep latency and oxygen levels were unfortunately not part of the standard criteria...mine dropped to 73% so even though I didn't have a lot of them..I was having some massive long ones (again not part of the criteria) causing significant drops in O2.