Bad sleep study experience

My sleep study experience was good. The main thing I found out I was having 68 AHI per hr. Dont know how I would have gotten this info. otherwise. The tech was great. Did not fall asleep right away. Slept lightly for about 4 hrs--enough to get the results they needed.

Husband went for sleep study--says he did not sleep at all. But sleep tech says yes a bit. Enough to know he has sleep apnea. But not to what degree.
Going back this week for split study. Half the time he will sleep-- half the time will try out masks. So what if he does not sleep? Who knows

AMESS make sure the Dr has left a script for Ambien to help hubby get to sleep if he has problems. It was hard for me to get to sleep for the sleep study, but it was even harder to sleep in the titration because of discomfort, leakage, wiring, excitement, and so on.

TASmart wrote:AMESS make sure the Dr has left a script for Ambien to help hubby get to sleep if he has problems. It was hard for me to get to sleep for the sleep study, but it was even harder to sleep in the titration because of discomfort, leakage, wiring, excitement, and so on.

I totally agree with this. I took Ambien for my sleep study and the titration (mine was two nights, not a split night).

I'm sorry the titration went so poorly for you.

Unfortunately, the only way to titrate is to try a pressure, and if it doesn't work well enough, raise it again, see if that works, and keep doing that until they find what works. If the pressure they had you at was too much for you to tolerate, and not enough to prevent the apnea events, then there would be no point to lower the pressure. They already knew it wasn't enough.

You may be more sensitive to the mask on your face and the pressure. So, you may need start at something lower than useful until you can get used to it and then slowly raise it to a therapeutic level. You may need to use a sleeping aid for awhile to help you adjust to it. Once you have used the cpap for awhile, the pressure won't feel like much anymore. My pressure is 11-17, and within a week, I wasn't sure if it was even on unless i put my hand in front of the exhaust.

Ideally, you should do a home study to SEE if a lab study is warranted. That is what happened to me. In the lab I was very weird but amazingly you do sleep even if you think you do not. I was looking at my watch and is was 5 am. I must have had mini sleeps - very shallow non REM sleeps that one does not even notice. All in all I slept 4.5 hours. Unfortunately the results were not good. They did CPAP and BPAP both. The only problem I have with them is that I never had a chance to talk to the doctor and they fixed me auto CPAP. (which I like to use in Auto mode if I could). No letting me leave would be unimaginable but perhaps you were not calm or agreeable to the study. (I.e sacrifice a night for the sake of your health)

This has happened twice in a row to me, at two different locations (the first one was moved to the second). Last night I went to my latest sleep lab session because I have had and faithfully used my CPAP machine for about seven years and need a new one (the humidifier died in mine a year ago). I have grown dependent on it to sleep. If course, they start me out with sleeping without a machine. Pairing my insomnia with my dependence and a mounting anxiety, I failed miserably. Not even melatonin helped. Why do they insist on people who have used their machines constantly for years to still go through this? It's wasting everyone's time, and insurance money. I told everyone ahead of time all of this, which they should already know. If I ever get back in touch with them, I'll ask if they can permit me to have a home test. But I have a feeling that either my insurance won't cover it or my medical system doesn't do that.

WredWytche wrote: ↑

Fri Dec 14, 2018 7:23 pm

I have grown dependent on it to sleep.

Note for newbies etc: No, one does not "grow dependent" on cpap to sleep, any more than one "grows dependent" on glasses to see.

One was figuratively "stumbling around blind" before cpap...