biased sleep study?

I broke the rules for my sleep study as I was told by a friend you need to try to sleep at all costs for your study or it is a waste of time (his doctor supposedly told him if he didn't sleep he would have to come back again). I was a bit nervous about it, and thought I would have trouble sleeping (and had to work the next day) so I had a few stiff drinks prior to the study and took a large dose of NyQuil before settling in for the study. Needless to say I slept like a log even with all the wires etc, however, my doctor reported a mild-moderate apnea that seemed to get better as the night went along which he indicated as NOT TYPICAL. I now realize I may have severely biased my own test. I am now on CPAP and struggling with it, particularly as I am losing sleep because of it (not falling asleep), and I can't help but think that I may be on this machine unecessarily. I had no sleep deprivation symptoms before and still have none if I don't use the machine. My wife has also not noticed me stopping breathing at all and gasping etc, so she is surprised by the study results. Could I have seriously messed up my test by drinking more than I should have and taking Nyquil right before the study?

I think you know the answer yourself... of course you messed up. But you can't and shouldn't take the results as meaningful now, however you sleep or not, or however you feel. Tell your doctor what happened, stop listening to friends and see if you can get retested, at least at home (there are tests that can be done at home for less money). If that doesn't work, you may now have to find a suitable autopap (we can advise about that) and do your own test and titration.

Just curious - if you had no symptoms prior to testing, why were you tested?

Here's a different possible scenario.
Alcohol messes with the sleep cycles meaning you may not have got much REM sleep and REM sleep is sometimes where OSA is much worse so if you happened to be one of those people (and it's very common for OSA to be worse in REM) you could maybe have scored higher on the AHI.

You would have been better off to convey your concerns about sleeping in a foreign situation and maybe getting a medication to help you get to sleep and the medication doesn't mess with the sleep cycles like alcohol does.

If you had none of the usual symptoms of OSA...how come you ended up in the sleep lab? Was it maybe because of a physical where you met criteria that forces a sleep study...I am thinking of CDL required truck drivers...or maybe something similar.

Yes, to clarify I asked my family doctor about a sleep test as I experienced atrial fibrillation for the first time 8 months ago. It was suggested to me by someone who is dealing with AFIB that sleep apnea can be associated with AFIB. My cardiologist suggested that most AFIB causes are difficult to determine, and only suggested risk factors such as family history, alcohol, caffeine, stress etc. The cardiologist didn't request the sleep study and actually seemed somewhat ambivalent about the sleep study. I think I was looking for the 'smoking gun' for the cause of my AFIB, being a relatively healthy and active 45 y o.

Do you have a copy of your sleep study results? If not, get it.

In theory alcohol can either make the airway tissues floppier or mess with the sleep architecture in a manner such that it wouldn't be impossible to miss OSA if it happened to be worse in REM and you didn't get much REM.
Your sleep study should identify the amount of time spent in REM.

So it can go either way....and you probably really shot yourself in the foot on this one.
What machine are you using and at what settings?
Perhaps we can learn something from the machine that might help figure out if you really have an OSA problem or not.

Jsleepy wrote: I am now on CPAP and struggling with it, particularly as I am losing sleep because of it (not falling asleep), and I can't help but think that I may be on this machine unecessarily. I had no sleep deprivation symptoms before and still have none if I don't use the machine. My wife has also not noticed me stopping breathing at all and gasping etc, so she is surprised by the study results. Could I have seriously messed up my test by drinking more than I should have and taking Nyquil right before the study?

Since you're now using a CPAP, get Sleepyhead software and upload your screengrabs to image hosting site Imgur... that'll tell you and us what's going on (just don't take anymore booze and Nyquil ) The links below (in order) will tell you what to do to get the Sleepyhead images on CPAPtalk:

https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepyhead/shorganize
https://sleep.tnet.com/resources/sleepy ... screenshot
https://sleep.tnet.com/reference/tips/imgur

Please fill out your equipment profile or put your mask and exact machine in your signature line (in text).

I had an at-home sleep test and was afraid I wouldn't sleep well even at home with all those wires hooked to me, so they prescribed a single tablet of Ambien. Worked like a charm.

Here's a good video on home sleep study tests. Lanky Lefty is well known around here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eD8ZM2E6mTc