Sleep Disorder Test

A great many folks suffer from a disorder known as sleep apnea which disrupts your rest while you’re in bed. There are various non dangerous kinds of sleep apnea but there are conditions that could lead to grave medical problems and endanger your life. That is why it’s of the utmost necessity to be provided with a sleep apnea test if you have a belief that you’re losing rest from this trouble.

There are a number of ways that you can tell if you have a sleep apnea problem, and many unfortunate people suffer from other symptoms or conditions in which sleep problems chronic. For example ,obesity, depression, and chronic fatigue syndrome all may be caused by sleep apnea, and they will also have cotton mouth or waking up often with a panic attack.

You may also experience insomnia but the only true way to discern whether or not your symptoms are caused by sleep apnea is to spend some time to be tested for sleep apnea. A sleep apnea test is usually given at a sleep disorder center but can also be administered at a hospital or doctor’s office that have overnight facilities and diagnostic equipment.

You’ll need to take a physical exam which consists of a good hard look at your mouth, throat and sinus areas. There should also be a list of questions detailing the following subjects, sleep quality, patterns, disturbances and impressions. The next step is to have the patient stay overnight where a recording is done.

The common test to record your sleep patterns is the PSG or polysomnogram, which can be given via two methods. The first type of test is carried out overnight and consists of monitoring several activities including 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 the technician simply connects the necessary electrodes and makes it easy to monitor the patient while they are at home using a PSG. What the doctors are looking for in judging if the test is positive or negative is a factor called the RDI or respiratory disturbance index.

This expresses in numerical terms the amount of unnatural hitches which disrupted your breathing over the entire test. The following values are usually used when deciding if someone has a sleep apnea issue. If the total amount of interruptions over an hour is over twenty in number the doctor can diagnose the patient with a form of sleep disorder, possibly sleep apnea.

There are additional tests which could be called for like a multiple sleep latency examination which 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. There is also a strip test that may be used just before the sleep apnea test to determine if one is needed.