When is a Sleep Study Recommended?
If you’ve had symptoms such as snoring and excessive daytime sleepiness, your doctor may suggest a sleep study to help gather more information about your condition.
In this blog, sleep specialist will explain exactly what’s involved with a sleep study and why it might be recommended.
What is a sleep study?
This is a non-invasive test that uses sensors to measure and record your breathing, heart rate, brain waves, and movements as you sleep. This test gives your doctor a complete, scientific picture of exactly what happens to your body throughout the night.
When is a sleep study recommended?
Your doctor can get information about your condition from your medical history and a physical examination. You may also be asked to keep a sleep diary that details when you went to bed as well as when you think you fell asleep and if you woke up during the night. You’ll also be asked to include whether you had caffeine or took medicine and when. This may lead your doctor to suspect a sleep disorder.
However, only a sleep study can give your doctor the specific data needed to make a definitive diagnosis if you have sleep apnea or certain other disorders. It can be recommended for the following reasons:
- Your doctor suspects you may have sleep apnea, circadian rhythm disorder, narcolepsy, restless legs syndrome, sleepwalking, or another sleep disorder
- You regularly have trouble falling asleep or staying asleep
- You snore loudly
- You feel excessively tired during the day, even after spending an adequate amount of time in bed
- You have trouble with restless legs at night
What are the advantages of a sleep study?
This test provides many advantages, including the following:
- Non-invasive: It causes no pain, and the only risk is perhaps a little redness from the adhesives used to attach electrodes.
- Yields a diagnosis: It gives your doctor specific, measurable information that can be used to make a definitive diagnosis
- Lets treatment start: Once a diagnosis is made, your doctor can receive immediate results and begin appropriate treatment.
- Gives follow-up information: If you’ve already received a diagnosis and have received treatment, a follow-up sleep study can give your doctor information on how well it’s working.
- Convenience: The study can sometimes be performed in your own home and bed if you’d prefer.
- Requires little preparation: You’ll probably be asked to avoid caffeine, alcohol, and sleep medications, but this is typically all the preparation you’ll have to do. If your sleep study is being conducted at home, your doctor will tell you how to properly use the machine.
Where can you get a sleep study in Connecticut?
Our doctors combines expertise with a commitment to serving their patients’ needs and values. They performs sleep studies at Greenwich Hospital, where he serves as Medical Director of the Sleep Lab, and also offers sleep studies that can be conducted at your home. You’ll simply take a home sleep test (HST) home with you after receiving instructions on how to use it. When you return it to our office, we’ll be able to read and interpret the data.
If you snore, feel excessively sleepy in the daytime, or have other symptoms that may indicate the presence of a sleep disorder, schedule an appointment with Sleep & Neuroscience Associates today.
