How Many Sleep Studies Have You Had?

I had one sleep study when I was diagnosed about 5 years ago at the hospital sleeping over for one night, then took a machine home to test for 2 weeks and also had a heart monitor and oxygen levels were better on CPAP.

Although you could kinda class the 2nd one as I was wearing a heart monitor and oxygen finger probe, I didn't have any other hookups and it was at home.

Thanks
Dave

TmjTerri wrote:Being on this forum is helping me embrace my condition and I am getting support and lots of advice which I appreciate. It is nice being able to talk to others who are going through the same thing. Terri

One of the best things about this forum is seeing that you don't have to be old and infirm to have this condition. Using the machine is starting to feel more 'normal'.

sleepydawn wrote:I have had 3 for me and been in the lab 3 more times with my kids. Good times!

Dawn, did any of your children get diagnosed with sleep apnea?

torontoCPAPguy wrote: I have taken it upon myself to titrate my pressures and so on and have done so to perfection.

Sleep lab and DME get very defensive if you mention adjusting your settings based on feedback rather than waiting 3 months for return appt. I feel sure that is why they insisted on disabling everything but the single pressure when I demanded an IntelliPAP Auto. The lab wanted only Resmed and would not accept data from any other machine. I ordered the IntelliPAP without RX, so I really am on my own until I feel I need another study (from a different sleep lab ).

Just two, one baseline, and one for titration.

I really would have gone for more, except that the techs were all dudes, and I'm a guy.

I'm only 6 weeks into CPAP therapy though, so I assume I will get called again at one point for a follow-up sleep study.
I'm getting a weird feeling that they tend to pair us up with same-sex technicians, however.

J/K of course...

OutaSync wrote:

sleepydawn wrote:I have had 3 for me and been in the lab 3 more times with my kids. Good times!

Dawn, did any of your children get diagnosed with sleep apnea?

Yes, my son (9) and daughter (7) both had it. My daughter was not even snoring but I had an instinct that she needed a polysom. The doctor seemed skeptical because in addition to not snoring, she is an excellent student and has no behavior troubles. He humored me anyway and sure enough her OSA was severe. She had an adenotonsilectomy and the apnea is gone. There were zero events at her follow up study. My son was a snorer, also well behaved and thriving in school. His surgery was a few weeks ago and he has a follow up study coming up. I think it will confirm that his apnea is gone. He no longer snores and he says he didn't know he could feel so well.

Thanks for all the great reponses!

I feel I've been very proactive in my treatment. I've been lurking on this forum ever since I was diagnosed and made sure to get a data capable machine. I've used it to monitor my AHI and adjust my pressure accordingly. I've never gotten to the mystical 0.0 but I'm consistently under 2.0. The problem is depsite this I still feel tired all the time. Dragging myself out of bed in the morning is the toughest thing to do.

I've seen many different specialists and they each come up with their own diagnosis related to their specialty. No treatments have really made a difference.

I recently purchased a recording Pulse Ox and nothing abnormal has shown up overnight.

My sleep doctor suggested another sleep study to fine tune pressure settings and look into periodic limb movements. With my machine I think the pressure is pretty well adjusted so i don't see the benefit in a sleep study just for that. We've looked for limb movements in previous studies and didn;t see anything.

Something must be causing this tiredness though so maybe it is worth the hassle.

sleepydawn wrote:

OutaSync wrote:

sleepydawn wrote:I have had 3 for me and been in the lab 3 more times with my kids. Good times!

Dawn, did any of your children get diagnosed with sleep apnea?

Yes, my son (9) and daughter (7) both had it. My daughter was not even snoring but I had an instinct that she needed a polysom. The doctor seemed skeptical because in addition to not snoring, she is an excellent student and has no behavior troubles. He humored me anyway and sure enough her OSA was severe. She had an adenotonsilectomy and the apnea is gone. There were zero events at her follow up study. My son was a snorer, also well behaved and thriving in school. His surgery was a few weeks ago and he has a follow up study coming up. I think it will confirm that his apnea is gone. He no longer snores and he says he didn't know he could feel so well.

That's great! I don't want to be a sourpuss but just keep an eye out on them... I too had my tonsils removed at the age of 10, but around late puberty started have major sleep problems (severe snoring but other issues too). If I were you, I would get my hands on a pulse-ox (it's always good to have one around anyway), and test them once or twice a year, especially as they hit puberty. I don't have any science to back this up, but that's what *I* would do if they were my kids, and they had a history of OSA, and they had parents with OSA! OSA tends to be hereditary, probably due to facial, throat, and neck features. (as snoredog would say, science will eventually catch up to what i'm saying ).

Officially, I've never had a sleep study of any kind.

Unofficially (through a sleep professional's kindness -- the wonders of the internet! ) -- two years after putting myself on autopap and successfully treating my OSA every night, I was given a wonderful opportunity to have a full PSG sleep study at an accredited hospital-based lab for three nights in a row. One night diagnostic, next night titrated with the lab's machine, third night auto-titrated on my own autopap while wired up for PSG.

Where others dread having a sleep study, hate the idea of going to a sleep lab, can't sleep well there, wouldn't go back... I loved getting that done (I'm a data-hound about this stuff!) I was as excited as a kid at Christmas about getting a real sleep study.

For example, each morning of the three studies, if I had been asked, "Did you have any dreams?" I'd have answered "Nope." Actually, I would know I probably did dream but simply wasn't aware of the dreams...didn't wake long enough during a dream to be aware of "dreaming." And sure enough, there on the PSG data were normal cycles of REM sleep happening each of the three nights.

The one thing the PSG sleep study turned up that I'd have never known about otherwise, was that I have PLMD (Periodic Limb Movement Disorder.) About half my PLMs caused arousals in the PSG sleep study. Apparently those arousals don't bother me enough to be worth treating, as I feel very rested and fine each morning. But if I'd still been feeling tired after starting CPAP on my own, I might have thought CPAP was not worth doing. I'd never have known that a second, completely unrelated sleep disorder arousals was continuing to make me feel tired or sleepy even though CPAP was doing its part of the job perfectly.

I'd have a PSG sleep study once a month or more if I could!! Not 'cause I need it, but just because it's so interesting to see soooo much data about what's happening when we're asleep. Fascinating (to me) this sleep stuff.

That's great! I don't want to be a sourpuss but just keep an eye out on them... I too had my tonsils removed at the age of 10, but around late puberty started have major sleep problems (severe snoring but other issues too). If I were you, I would get my hands on a pulse-ox (it's always good to have one around anyway), and test them once or twice a year, especially as they hit puberty. I don't have any science to back this up, but that's what *I* would do if they were my kids, and they had a history of OSA, and they had parents with OSA! OSA tends to be hereditary, probably due to facial, throat, and neck features. (as snoredog would say, science will eventually catch up to what i'm saying ).

It's helpful for me to know what your experience was. My dad and sister have OSA, my husband has CA. I didn't have oxygen issues at my sleep study but I do have a pulse oximeter anyway. I will take your advice. I want to run interference right away if there is any possibility their apnea will return.

That's good to hear . I also did not have significant desaturations during my PSG (at age 29) but they did still go into the 90% range, which is enough to catch with a pulse ox. Who knows, by the time your kids hit their late teens or twenties, you might be able to buy a home PSGs at a pharmacy Oh we can dream can't we?!

Interestingly enough, it was my mom that actually suggested I might have sleep apnea, after the son of her friend was diagnosed with it. She said he also had similar symptoms and was "cured" after cpap. I went to a sleep specialist for consultation in her neighborhood and was recommended for a sleep study... Unfortunately we did not know how serious OSA was, and due to my travelling around it took another couple of years before I got on cpap (i used a dental device in the meantime). GO MOMS!!!