A Sleep Apnea Test

A common sleep disorder is called sleep apnea which causes you to cease respiring while you’re endeavoring to sleep. There are several distinct kinds and while they’re not usually life endangering there are situations where it could cause serious health troubles and expose you to life threatening hazards. This is why it is essential to acquire a sleep apnea test if you have an inkling that you’re hurting from this sleep disorder.

Several methods are available for determining if you are suffering from sleep apnea, and many who have sleep apnea also have a number of other symptoms in which sleep apnea is a side effect. Some good examples of this are ,obesity, depression, and chronic fatigue syndrome all may be caused by sleep apnea, and they also might have dry mouth or a sudden panic attack upon waking up.

You may also experience insomnia but the only way to know if your symptoms are being caused by sleep apnea or are perhaps the cause of your sleep apnea is to take a sleep apnea test. A sleep apnea test is usually given at a sleep disorder center but can also be administered at a hospital or doctor’s office where overnight facilities are available.

The first thing to do is have a physical exam which is comprised of an examination of the throat, the nose, the uvula and the palate. To better understand your problem there will be a list of questions detailing your sleep quality, sleep patterns and feelings about how well you are sleeping. The very next step in the process is to have the patient stay overnight where a recording is done.

The test they commonly use to check your sleep health is a polysomnogram or PSG, which is administered in to various forms. The first type of test is carried out overnight and consists of supervising various activities such as your breathing, heart rate, level of oxygen in your blood and your brain level.

The second way this can be tested is at home where a technician connects the electrodes and makes it easy to monitor the patient while they are at home using a PSG. What they will be trying to discern when deciding whether the results of the test are good or bad is a factor called the RDI or respiratory disturbance index.

This method expresses in data form the number of times you experience a negative breathing pattern which occurred in breathing over the course of the test. Following is the common measures used when diagnosing a patient with sleep apnea. If the number of captured events over the period of an hour is over twenty in number then the patient is diagnosed with some form of sleep apnea.

Occasionally, there are some added exams which may also be requested including a multiple sleep latency test that determines how much your lack of sleep is effecting you. A normal person requires, on average, more than 10 minutes to fall asleep so those who fall straight into a deep sleep in under five minutes should get some intervention. A strip test is also helpful to take prior to the sleep apnea test to determine if there are further tests needed.