Sleep Study? Ever done one?

Last night I had to go to a "sleep study". Allegedly, I have some sleep disorders (apnea among them). Has anyone here ever been through one of these things?

Mine started at 8pm last night. I was supposed to "SLEEP" from the moment they commanded me to, until at least 7 hours later.

I already have a difficult time falling asleep, and it generally takes me a couple hours to get there. I also wake up at zero-dark-thirty every day. Having someone tell me to... "Go to sleep right now!"... is like telling me to list off the winning Lottery numbers in advance of the drawing. In other words, that's not going to happen. Making matters even worse is being covered from head to toe with sensor wires, and then having a mask place over your face which is connected to a mechanic's shop air compressor!

Holy cow! Talk about an unpleasant experience!

They said they needed (6) hours of data. I told them in advance I wake up at 3am (3:30 latest) every day. I couldn't check-in until 8pm at the earliest, and it took 45 minutes to attach the 10,000 sensors they wanted. By 9pm I was in bed, as a mummy, connected to the matrix, with specific instructions to...'fall asleep'. Now, I don't know about anyone else, but ordering me to fall asleep is about like telling a two year old child to stop asking "Why?". It's impossible. Why? Because, well...WHY? LOL!

They said they needed (6) hours of data, so I gave them 6:18 of data, but there was no way I was asleep that long. Then, I woke up at 3am (as I usually do). Well, apparently no one else on the planet wakes up this early. But I'd told them, very clearly in advance, that I don't sleep beyond 3:30am. I guess they forgot. When I woke up, they said I woke up "too early". I asked if they had (6) hours of data, and they acknowledged they did (again, 6:18 of data), but they said I was still early, and none of their other patients had woken up yet. So....I offered to hang out for a while and read a book, but they said "No!". I could only stay if I left the air compressor hose and face mask (which was acting like an air-hockey puck on my face by that time) remained on, else it didn't "count".

So, I'm not sure what's going to happen, but I think I flunked my sleep study. I knew it wouldn't work from the start, but I'd really tried hard to keep an open mind throughout.

No way could I ever go back and do another one of these. Primarily because I'd know what to expect and I wouldn't sleep at all. The air pressure constantly increases over time, to the point where your face sounds like a leaking balloon toward the end.

Yes, I'm just ranting I guess. I'm just wondering if anyone else has gone through one of these dang tests. They're really not very pleasant, especially toward the end.

Oh, and I guess no one else in the World gets up, like wide awake, at 3am. For me, it's time to feed the cows, and they've got no issues waking up at 3am to eat!!!

I did but it was a take home test where they gave you a machine you hooked up to yourself for 3 days and they collect data remotely.

I definitely have sleep apnea (I was stopping breathing over 100 times a night.

I will say this though getting a CPAP machine for my sleep apnea was the greatest thing I ever did for my sleep. It take a week or so to get used to but once you do you sleep like a baby. I didn't realize how much rem sleep I was missing. Every time I stopped breathing I would sort of wake up taking me out of rem.

I have been having the best sleep of my life since the CPAP. Wake up refreshed! The key is you have to use the machine. So many people use it one day and give up because its uncomfortable at first.

Yes, I have sleep apnea quite bad, and I finally got set up with the VA to take care of all these things. I did the study, I'm not at all hard to convince to sleep, at 8, I'm usually fighting to keep my eyes open unless I'm busy. I went to sleep as ordered, and dude woke me up at some point in the middle of the night and put the CPAP mask on me. All that went well I suppose. I now use a CPAP to sleep with and have noticed a significant difference in my energy level. I get up at 5 every morning.

Now if you want to find out why apnea is an issue, go get you a colonoscopy. They said, just relax, you will just wake up and it will all be over. Bullsh!t. The anesthesiologist kept waking me up while the others had a 50 foot hose up my ass. He said I stopped breathing. Well, yea, that's what sleep apnea does. It was a less than pleasant experience. Not a fan.

Hope you can get better rest with whatever they offer you. If they give you a cpap, give it a little bit before you toss it. Once you are used to it, it's hard to imagine sleeping without it. And don't be afraid to tighten the mask.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

It's been suggested I do a sleep study because I made the mistake mentioning that I (retired) take naps. My body likes 3 hours of sleep at a time. Apparently, the quac....er....doctors think everyone should be wide awake all damn day. Not to mention my watch tracks my sleep which it rates as "excellent" most nights.

Like other medical "studies", follow the money.

What people need to do is research human sleep patterns to discover the invention of electrical lighting has altered human sleep cycles.

I've got/had sleep apnoea and have been using a Cpap for 6 years. In the UK if you're diagnosed with sleep apnoea your doctor has to inform the driving licence authority (DVLA) and if you don't conform and use the Cpap they take your driving licence off you.
I don't know if this is your solution but I was over weight. Though you might not realise it, it's not about your body weight it's about being over weight around your throat. My machine gives me a read out of how many episodes per hour I have every night. I used to have on average 2 to 3 episodes an hour, I have lost weight and the night before last I never had any episodes and last night it registered point 3 per hour. Since losing weight my apnoea has virtually gone. I'm not saying this could be you but it worked for me.
My machine is linked to the hospital by micro chip and I'm expecting them to get in touch to take the machine back as technically I have not got sleep apnoea now.

PS. a couple of tips if you use a Cpap. After a time you will find that your mouth and lips will go extra dry. Tip 1. Use Vaseline on your lips every night. Tip 2. Get a machine with a reservoir and persevere to get the moisture level right for you. Tip 3. In the winter get a sleeve for your pipe to stop condensation forming if like my wife she likes the bedroom "cool".

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I wake up at three AM or there about every single nightl have for decades. Sometimes I can get back to sleep in an hour or two, but most of the time I'm up for good.

When I was working and had two toddlers to take care of the sleep depravation got so bad it was hard to function. I got a tape with sumliminal messageing under the sound of ocean waves and put it in an auto-reverse tape recorder; it was a life saver!

The sleep study I had done showed I have restless leg syndrome ( I could have told them that ) and I get very little REM sleep, fo whatever good that test does me.

Sure seemed like a waste of time and money for me.

Thirty five years ago I started having a pain in my tongue. A sharp pain like it was being stuck with a pin. I went to the doc and he said to look into this sleeping disorder thing that 78was new so I tried it.

Oh and also I was falling asleep all the time. I could not drive that half hour drive home after work without stopping along the way for a nap/

So the thing the sleeping doc found was that I was constantly waking myself up at night and not getting any solid sleep plus, the tongue pain was from my tongue cramping at night trying to keep from choking. So, only a few nights with the apnea air pump and the pain in my tongue was gone forever and I began to sleep all night.

So here I am 35 years later and still sleeping pretty well though the night. Last night I got seven solid hours of deep sleep. 7Only trouble now is having pee sometimes in the middle of the night. At 78 I guess that should be expected.

But falling asleep? I lay down, play about ten minutes of Zynga poker, put done my phone, pull the covers over my heads and I"m gone.

Yes, I've done sleep studies. They think my apnea is caused by sinus issues. I don't have the dangerous obstructive apnea, but I'll stop breathing for very short periods. A lot. 80-100 times per night.

I have a hard time wearing a machine, so I've tried breathing exercises coupled with supplements. NAC and CoQ-10 have helped a lot. 1000 mg of NAC with 100 mg of CoQ, 2x per day.

This MD knows a lot about sleep apnea:



This is gold:

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

I used to dive out of bed gasping for air and wake my wife several times a night. It was getting bad enough that I tried to sleep in a recliner chair rather than bed. I got my doctor to refer me to a sleep clinic but they had a backlog and the appointment was months away.

Then, I had had a car accident falling asleep at the wheel. It was a sunny day, after lunch with my wife, and I remember singing along with Bowie's "Changes" on the radio, which I had up loud, as no-one was around (it was a deserted country road), and I was in a good mood.

I had no recollection of anything between singing along to the radio, and the accident, but I must have had a microsleep, because, from my perception, I was singing along happily, the next, there was a bang and the car was spinning upside down.

From the tyre tracks through the vegetation at the side of the road, it looks like I had veered off the road gradually, without slowing down, and had stopped when I hit the concrete power pole, which was cut down by the car, which ended up on its roof, having bounced off the pole and was back on the road..

So, apparently I was prioritized to get the test urgently, and also I was informed that someone else had dropped out of needing a test because they died, falling asleep at the wheel, like I did.

After the test, I remember removing the adhesive, from all the medical tape holding on all the electrodes and stuff, for ages. I still have pictures of me all wired-up.

I have little recollection of sleeping during the test.

They told me that my blood oxygen was dangerously low and that I woke an average of 48 times a minute (yeah, not a night, a minute!).

I have been using a CPAP machine since then, and have been mostly getting a fair nights sleep, so it was worth the inconvenience!

a reply to: MemeLord

Yeah, this is what my dad did recently. It was a little silicone ring that apparently captured enough information. This was more to renew his CPAP coverage than get a new one, as he's used one for 14 years now. Thankfully, I have no apnea issues, but I don't know that I could get used to wearing one of those masks.

I had one of those around 04. A few years after I had the car accident that broke a chunk off a bone in my neck, and also screwed up my backbone below the shoulder blades on my spice. That lower one caused a lot of problems because it caused a hole to form which drained puss for about a year...my tee shirt would stick to that spot.

Never look in the back seat when stopped at a stop light on a slippery day because if a car plows into you, it screws up the spine in a few places. That caused that little fin on my spine in the neck to crack off and it also caused a strong pull on my spine because all the backbones are twisted and can't flex. Also, it caused my brain to slosh since my head could not bob back and forth and that rigidity caused a lesion in the temporal lobe causing epilepsy. The car that hit us was doing maybe forty five. we were stopped at the light...I was driving a lincoln towncar, it had excellent antilocks but we still had a hard time stopping and the car that hit us was going to try to go through the light, hitting the brakes then slid sideways into our rear end and totaling both cars.

Sorry for the off topic. so now I will get to the test.

A doctor set up an appointment because I could not sleep.

I went there, they clipped spots on my head, scuffed them with something, and glued the sensors on it. They told me to go to sleep...Yeah right, strange room, wires hanging off your head, and neck and back pain.

I flunked the test, when I talked to the technician he asked why I thought I wasn't sleeping. I told him about my back and neck injuries and how I could not sleep without adjusting my position constantly as it got sore and if I shifted position I could at least get a half hour of sleep again before having to adjust again gently so I would not make it worse

The technician asked me if I told this to my doctor, I said yes, I always say it screws up my sleep when my back is so sore. I had multiple x-rays confirming things were screwed up, multiple cat scans, and three or four MRI's, one with die already that clearly showed the problems.

The technician said what a waste of time having the sleep study, I said I wondered why she prescribed it. I never did see his report....I wonder what he said to the doctor in the report. Probably similar to the report when I was diagnosed with walking pneumonia with actual tests to show what it was and that doctor sent me for a test for COPD...flunked that and when I talked to the doctor giving that I asked if that walking pneumonia is why I flunked...He said I hate when MDs waste my time like this.

Find what in your diet effects your sleep. I have identified three food types that set this off and although it is hard to eliminate them because I am Married and the wife likes some of those foods, I try to eat very small amounts and no leftovers. Pizza and spaghetti are two culprits....a tomato intolerance...Tomatine. It is related to lycopene some how so I can have limited amounts of lycopene chemistry and I sleep better that way. I still get bad neckaches if I sleep on my back too long. They radiate into my head but go away as soon as I get up and move around pretty much. I can eat tomatoes in a meal once a week and don't have the digestive issues that cause problems with sleeping...but not more than a minimum of once every five days or so. The wife has no problems with tomatoes other than high vitamin C which increases uptake of iron too high and she bruises very easily...I tell her never have much meat with tomatoes or orange juice which after years of looking at her across the table every day is easy to see that it causes her easy big bruises. No tequilla and OJ for her if she eats food high in iron...genetic trait she has I found in her DNA with a gene app.

Ok, off topic again. If you are like me, it will take paying attention for about three years before you will be able to identify what class of food causes the issues. The wife has written down what we ate every day for the last ten years on calendars but we eat a diverse diet and sometimes it is combinations of food chemistry that cause problems....it is not an easy job to figure out how to identify intolerances. I have a clue, my body temp is normally always around ninety seven degrees....I lack some enzymes because of that. "The Cold Body Page" site www.mall-net.com... helped me to comprehend how to evaluate things.

But this may not have anything to do with your issues, I just posted it so maybe someone might be helped to understand this concept.

a reply to: Flyingclaydisk

Yes, I did a home study. Like you, I have bigtime problems even getting to sleep and the inconvenience of a c-pap machine even exacerbated my insomnia. The mask alone was a terrific nuisance and the constant droning noise of the unit was monotonous. I found that sleeping on my side pretty much resolved my apnea problems and I ended up chucking the monster machine entirely.

I have low back pain and sciatica down into my hip all the way down my legs into my ankles. I found that using my "Thumper Sport" percussion vibrator helps tremendously with the pain that is a large contributing factor to my insomnia. I use it on my low back and all the way down the leg down to the ankles. Use it on my neck pain as well. I love my "Thumper Sport".

a reply to: ColeYounger2

I take a 500 mg taurine in the morning...for my epilepsy. I found that if I also take that at night, it interferes with my sleep. So I take a 500 mg NAC at night and it helps with the epilepsy, but also helps me get a decent nights sleep. But sometimes I wind up sleeping on my back too much and wind up with a nasty neck ache from sleeping too deeply in that position....then I get a sore neck from injuries in the past.

I don't get the skipped breaths like my wife does, but with her what she eats during the day effects that but she eats what she wants to eat...I have no right to say anything in her mind. When she was on a higher dose of Zoloft, it was much worse and almost disappeared when she cut it in half. She talked to her doctor who then cut the dose in half. But even with that in half now, certain times she still gets it and it lasts about a day and is somehow related to what and how much of something she ate that day. We check out the food log calender sometimes, but she does not write down every snack or what she drinks on that....just our main meal courses.

like a lot of you
overweight
don't hardly remember the actual test
got the cpap. hated it first day/three then loved it. can't sleep without it now.

happy for all of you that got better.

a few times I had some kind of sinus infection and I couldn't sleep at all. would sit in chair trying. one of the worst experiences of my life. eventually got some nasal spray that helped.

Thanks, everyone, for all the great replies! Very informative.

I figured I might add a little more information because after reading my OP I see I left something out.

First, I had already done the home study part where they confirmed I had apnea (obstructive and whatever other regular kind). So, the test I'd gone in for was a more detailed test to figure out what machine I needed (I guess). Consequently, my test started right off with a cpap mask. They called it a "tritration" (sp?) test. No idea what that means. I would find out.

I didn't really have a problem with the mask (at first). In fact, I was actually pleasantly surprised; I actually liked it. It made my breathing easier. Where one of my biggest issues happens is right when I fall asleep, right on that bitter edge between being awake and falling asleep. Right at that point, I guess my throat closes off...which wakes me back up again. Wash, rinse and repeat, until I roll over on my side which stops this cycle. The cpap mask seemed to really help with this.

So, at first, I was thinking to myself that I could actually get used to this whole cpap thing. As time rolled on I then began to experience the 'tritration' part of the study. Apparently, this is where they vary the air pressure to find the right balance through the night. Well, in my case, this meant the pressure steadily increased until the freaking mask was dancing around on my face like an air hockey puck (no matter how tight I tried to make it), and it sounded like stabbing the tires on my car with all the air leaks. By the end of the night the pressure had become so much it was unbearable. If I opened my mouth, my cheeks would blow up like sticking my head out the window of a car going 85mph. If I lifted the mask it sounded like a shop air compressor (and I'm not really exaggerating here either). The only way I could keep the mask sealed to my face was to place one or both hands on it and physically press it onto my face. There's no way you can sleep like that.

When you couple all that with the fact I already wake up at 3am on most days; it was about 3am when the pressure reached terminal velocity in my estimation. I couldn't take it anymore, and I was just lying there, wide awake, pressing the mask on my face to get the screeching sound of the leaks to stop. I'd had enough, so I rang the attendant and said I was done.

The sad part is, I actually enjoyed the thing before they turned the pressure up so damn high. So, I don't know what will happen now. I'm sure I'll get some kind of a lecture from someone, but screw it, that's no way to conduct a test. I don't know if they were supposed to be monitoring this pressure and adjusting it, or if they just set it to steadily increase the whole time, but the pressure at the end was ridiculous in the extreme.

Anyway, I appreciate everyone's input. I'm not against the cpap in general, but if the pressure has to be that high, well, I'm not sure I'm cool with that. So, now I'm stuck until I hear back in the "two to three weeks before your results come back". I suspect that's where they will tell me I flunked.

my cpap has adjustable pressure
hope you get this resolved