Has anyone ever had a baseline sleep study?

Question

I have to have a sleep study done tomorrow night and was wondering what to expect. Has anyone had one?

Answer 1

Wear comfortable clothes. Don't bring too much luggage. They'll give you a really long survey (unless you've already completed that). You'll sign a bunch of forms, some for insurance, others for consent.

You'll have a bunch of electrodes pasted to your head, some on your forehead. You'll have a few on your legs too (to monitor leg tremors). It'll be difficult to sleep as you'll be wired up. They'll see how much "good" sleep you get. They'll measure snoring (airway obstruction), as you turn from side to side. They'll even measure teeth grinding.

If your sleep study shows obstruction... or a mixture of that and poor sleep, they'll schedule you for a second study with a CPAP machine while you sleep. I'm assuming when you mentioned "baseline" they're not doing the CPAP trial.

Anyway, good luck. Hope that answers at least a few of your questions. Oh... and I forgot you'll have a pulse oximeter taped to one of your fingers (to measure oxygenation while you sleep). So.. LOTS of wires. Do your best, and try not to let it bother you.

If you want more detailed info, Wikipedia has a good rundown. Look under "polysomnography".